France’s President, François Hollande, went underground today to celebrate his 60th birthday, fleeing the gossip mags and negative headlines in the right-wing media, reports The Independent.
The Elysée palace said only that the President was somewhere in south-eastern France with his four children – born to Mr Hollande and his former partner Ségolène Royal. His only known work-related activity was a lunchtime phone call to Vladimir Putin, in which Mr Hollande expressed “serious concern” about Russia’s “unilateral” dispatch of a so-called humanitarian convoy to eastern Ukraine. It is not known whether Mr Putin wished the French President a happy birthday.
His critics in the French press made it clear that the President, whose 16 per cent approval rating is two points above his record low of 14, has nothing to celebrate. Le Point, a right-wing news magazine, asked its readers to prioritise their birthday wish list for him: their top one was that he should leave office.
Some opposition politicians took to Twitter suggesting that he should have the courage of his socialist convictions and retire on his 60th birthday.
Le Figaro today published the eighth instalment of a fictional series entitled Hollande Leaves. In the latest instalment, the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, considers throwing his hat into the ring to replace the President who has stepped down 18 months before the end of his term. Unfortunately for Mr Hollande, the plot – whose backdrop is a France mired in debt, with rising unemployment, mass demonstrations and a split within the political left – doesn’t seem far-fetched.
In an editorial, Le Figaro claimed the President’s performance has been greeted with “general disappointment, even within his own camp”. The paper predicted the situation will worsen, with growth figures and the unemployment rate “expected to confirm the head of state’s goals are out of reach on both fronts”.
Read more of this report from The Independent.