The teenage sons of former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy and former first lady Valerie Trierweiler are embroiled in a fierce battle on Twitter which has gripped the nation, reports Newsweek.
Louis Sarkozy and Léonard Trierweiler, both 17, have been insulting each other via the social media platform on and off for several months in a conflict dubbed “le tweetclash” by the French media.
The teenagers’ spat has provoked amusement amongst the French public, with thousands of Twitter users commenting on and replying to their tweets. However, the public nature of the feud has been viewed in some quarters as an embarrassment for the boys’ respective parents, seemingly unable to prevent the repeated arguments.
The Twitter feud began in July, when the young Trierweiler confronted Sarkozy junior after he responded to Brazil’s 7-1 World Cup defeat against Germany by branding it “the Brazilian genocide" in a tweet. Trierweiler replied that the comparison was inappropriate, and in poor taste.
The pair have also clashed on the topic of Nicolas Sarkozy’s possible return to politics, despite his indictment for alleged corruption.
In September, Sarkozy announced his candidacy for leadership of his former party, the UMP (Union for a Popular Movement), in a Facebook post in which he promised "to transform [his party] from top to bottom". At the time, Léonard Trierweiler tweeted: “Nicolas Sarkozy has changed ... Rolex?”
Trierweiler also responded to a tweet from the former president which said that his return would require “all the intelligence, all the energy, all the good wishes...", with a joke at the expense of Nadine Morano, a key member of the UMP (Union for Popular Movements), the centre-right party formerly led by Sarkozy. “This tweet from Nicolas Sarkozy helps you understand why he no longer wants nadine__morano”, he quipped.
The spat comes after French politics has been rocked by a series of scandalous and bruising revelations about the private lives of various politicians, not least the acrimonious split between Trierweiler and Hollande.