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France's Other First Lady
They're coming to take me away, ha ha
Spare a thought for defeated Presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. Rather than going gently into the good night of political obscurity following Nicolas Sarkozy's win last spring, Mme Royal has become something of France's madwoman in the attic.
First their was her much-publicised separation from Socialist Party Chairman François Hollande, who had been fooling around with a flame-haired TV temptress. Then leading figures in her party attacked her for failing to defeat Sarkozy (despite polls indicating that she was the only plausible character in the Socialist Party who had a chance of doing so). Then Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë positioned himself as the "natural" leader of centre-left, a position she coveted.
She hasn't done herself any favours, though, ranting against Sarkozy's Presidency at every opportunity to a diminishing number of people willing to listen. Following the release of FARC terror hostage Ingrid Betancourt, Ségo soured the party by criticising Sarkozy's role in her release (or lack of it) - a complaint that earned her censure from press, her party and the public alike.
Government MPs have spoken of Royal's "martyr complex"; many on her side would agree.
Now she is complaining that people in Sarkozy's clan broke into her flat on the outskirts of Paris last month. Nothing was stolen in the burglary - a sinister echo of a previous break-in in the weeks before last May's Presidential election.
Royal blamed a "clan" linked to Sarkozy for the break-in on France's main news program, which followed an interview in which she claimed that the President and his "wealthy friends" were plotting a takeover of France.
"I observe that on the day after I said that it was time to halt the Sarkozy clan's take-over of France, my home was ransacked", she said, "I make a link between the two events."
She says the "ransacking" of one of her homes was designed to intimidate her.
And do you know what? We believe her. Not that deranged or paranoid nonsense about Sarkozy's rich buddies planning a coup (she needs her head examined if she thinks they'd try that), but her claim that Sarkozy's security forces may be in some way responsible. That doesn't stretch the imagination at all: Break-ins where nothing is missing aren't altogether rare in the French business world. One thing the past couple of years of writing EURSOC has taught us is Never Trust The Government. They're either lying, spying or both.
Whether they want to intimidate Royal or reckon that she's got something to hide, EURSOC wouldn't put this kind of snooping past the French authorities. It's unlikely that Sarkozy himself is orchestrating the break-ins or even knows about them, but loyal lieutenants can sometimes overstep the mark.
