Shuffle brings Royal into Hollande’s inner circle
‘I’m not at all looking for revenge,’ says French president’s former partner
PARIS — Faced with a voter backlash at the polls, French President François Hollande is looking to revive his sputtering presidency with help from a surprising quarter: Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children.
Royal, a high-profile Socialist in her own right, was tapped Wednesday to take over as minister of environment and energy in the new government named by Hollande and his new prime minister, Manuel Valls, after a crushing defeat for their Socialist Party in municipal voting Sunday.
Speaking on French television, Royal said she is “very honoured and at the same time I understand the importance of this major ministry in turning around the coun- try and the job creation that goes with that.”
Hollande’s cabinet shuffle was a reaction to a historic electoral win by France’s far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen. The party won a dozen town halls and more than 1,000 city and town council seats in the municipal elections.
Fresh off her win and as the extreme right rises across Europe, Le Pen is leading the charge for continent-wide elections next month like the general of a conquering army, hoping to attract kindred anti-immigrant parties around Europe in a broad alliance. The voting for the 751-seat European Parliament, based in Strasbourg in eastern France, takes place in each of the EU’s 28 member states, stretching over four days beginning May 22.
Royal’s return to government follows a long period in the political wilderness. She ran for president in 2007, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy. She was overlooked for a spot in the Socialist government that took office after Hollande’s presidential victory in 2012, despite having served as minister for education and family in governments under François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.
Lifelong bachelor Hollande met Royal in 1978 during their studies at the École nationale d’administration. They never married, and broke up in 2007 — one month after Royal’s defeat in the presidential election — after almost 30 years together. Their two daughters and two sons are all grown.
Soon after splitting with Royal, Hollande made public a new relationship with the journalist Valérie Trierweiler.
After Hollande’s presidential victory in 2012, Trierweiler was said to be opposed to seeing one-time romantic rival Royal enter the new government.
But Hollande and Trierweiler broke up in January a few days after a magazine published photos of what it said was the president, his faced obscured by a motorcycle helmet, visiting an actress for a secret tryst.
“I’m not at all looking for revenge,” Royal told Europe 1 radio shortly before taking over the ministry, a sort of déjà vu for the woman who was environment minister 22 years ago under Mitterrand, her mentor as well as Hollande’s. This will be Royal’s fourth time as a minister.
Despite losing a battle to become party leader in 2011 as well as her bid for a parliamentary seat in 2012, the 60-year-old Royal remains one of the Socialist Party’s most experienced leaders.
Welcoming Royal into government helps Hollande plug a hole created by the departure of the outgoing government’s two Green Party ministers. The Greens, a traditional ally of the Socialists, refused to serve in a government led by Valls, who they see as too far to the right.
During his electoral campaign, Hollande had pledged to reduce the share of nuclear energy in the power supply to 50 per cent from 75 per cent by 2025, and to close the oldest French nuclear plant of Fessenheim.
Environmentalists criticized Hollande and the former government of JeanMarc Ayrault for not pushing hard for these green goals.
The government shakeup was expected after Hollande’s Socialists suffered big losses in nationwide voting for mayors and city counsellors.
The ambitious Valls will have to cope with the more leftist views of Hollande’s entourage. Countering those who criticize his Socialist credentials, Valls repeated in a TV interview Wednesday night, “I am a man of the left.”