PARIS: Critics accused French President Francois Hollande of seeking to influence the judiciary yesterday as his girlfriend went to court seeking damages over a salacious biography.
Valerie Trierweiler, the president’s 47-year-old partner, is suing the authors of La Frondeuse (The Rebel) for defamation and invasion of privacy, seeking ¤85,000 ($110,000) in damages and court costs.
As the trial opened yesterday, it emerged that Hollande sent a letter - but not on paper with the presidential letterhead - to the court denying an assertion in the book that he had reached out to the right in the mid-1990s.
Hollande, 58, denounced as a “complete fabrication” the book’s claim that he had in 1994 sought to arrange a meeting with the then right-wing prime minister Edouard Balladur. Interior Minister Manuel Valls also wrote to the court saying comments he made to the two authors were distorted and taken out of context. That letter was written on ministry letterhead, said Olivier Pardo, the authors’ lawyer.
“The separation of powers has been violated. The president is the guarantor of judicial independence. This is unbelievable,” said Pardo. The right-wing opposition UMP said the letter could be seen as a way of putting pressure on the court. “I am astonished,” said UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope. “I wonder what are the reasons that may have led Hollande to give so many lectures to (his right-wing predecessor Nicolas) Sarkozy... and not to apply them to himself.”
There was no official reaction from Hollande, but a source close to the president said he was in no way trying to influence the court and was simply providing testimony in the case.
The letter mentioned in the book was allegedly written to former right-wing minister Patrick Devedjian to ask him to arrange a meeting with Balladur.
The book, written by television journalists Christophe Jakubyszyn and Alix Bouilhaguet, claims Trierweiler had an affair with Devedjian early on in her relationship with Hollande.
At the time she was still married to her second husband and Hollande was still officially with one-time presidential candidate Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children. Hollande’s complicated private life has been the source of frequent speculation and a slew of publications since he came to power in May.
Trierweiler is also seeking 70,000 euros in damages from magazine Point de Vue, which in early October published an interview with the authors. The court said it would hold a further hearing on January 28.
AFP
