Hollande draws flak over partner's defamation case
Source: Agencies |
December 11, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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FRENCH President Francois Hollande has written a letter supporting partner Valerie Trierweiler in her defamation suit against authors of a tell-all biography, lawyers said yesterday, prompting accusations of political interference.
Trierweiler brought the case against the authors of the "La Frondeuse," or "The Rebel," a saga detailing the former journalist's relations with France's political elite, including Hollande himself and his ex-partner Segolene Royal.
Lawyers for Trierweiler, who is seeking 80,000 euros (US$103,400) in damages, produced the letter in a Paris court as evidence supporting allegations of defamation and invasion of privacy by the two writers and their publishing house, Moment.
In tiny, handwritten script on paper with no presidential markings, Hollande criticizes the authors for "pure invention" in a passage concerning him.
The Socialist president was acting as a private citizen when he wrote the letter because the passage in question concerned him directly, an official in his office said.
Critics accused Hollande of using his political clout to influence the outcome of the case. "We are witnessing a total confusion of roles in the executive branch whereby the president intervenes in a legal affair just because he wants to," said Valerie Debord, spokeswoman for the centre-right UMP party.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls also wrote to the court to condemn passages in which he is quoted speaking about Trierweiler. His letter is typed on a ministry letterhead.
"They're using a nuclear bomb to smash a fly," Yves Derai, head of the Moment publishing house, told reporters.
The messy love triangle involving Hollande, Trierweiler and Royal - a former Socialist presidential candidate - has filled French media for months. The episode brings yet more unwelcome attention onto Hollande and Trierweiler, who are not married, just as she was trying to keep out of the limelight.
Trierweiler brought the case against the authors of the "La Frondeuse," or "The Rebel," a saga detailing the former journalist's relations with France's political elite, including Hollande himself and his ex-partner Segolene Royal.
Lawyers for Trierweiler, who is seeking 80,000 euros (US$103,400) in damages, produced the letter in a Paris court as evidence supporting allegations of defamation and invasion of privacy by the two writers and their publishing house, Moment.
In tiny, handwritten script on paper with no presidential markings, Hollande criticizes the authors for "pure invention" in a passage concerning him.
The Socialist president was acting as a private citizen when he wrote the letter because the passage in question concerned him directly, an official in his office said.
Critics accused Hollande of using his political clout to influence the outcome of the case. "We are witnessing a total confusion of roles in the executive branch whereby the president intervenes in a legal affair just because he wants to," said Valerie Debord, spokeswoman for the centre-right UMP party.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls also wrote to the court to condemn passages in which he is quoted speaking about Trierweiler. His letter is typed on a ministry letterhead.
"They're using a nuclear bomb to smash a fly," Yves Derai, head of the Moment publishing house, told reporters.
The messy love triangle involving Hollande, Trierweiler and Royal - a former Socialist presidential candidate - has filled French media for months. The episode brings yet more unwelcome attention onto Hollande and Trierweiler, who are not married, just as she was trying to keep out of the limelight.
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