Wielding the photo of a handsome hunk with distended biceps, lean abdomen, sleek briefs, Extreme Right FN party presidential candidate Marine Le Pen bemoaned French diplomacy collapse. ?Was it an ad for Eminence (male underwear brand), or the real ambassador in Tunisia?? she questioned, demanding sexy-underwear wearing, 41-year-old French Ambassador Boris Boillon resigns, ?for the honour and dignity of the French and Tunisians.?
Playboy girl: Daughter of Jean Marie Le Pen, who for 35 years tried becoming French president with the ?French first, immigrant out? slogan, perhaps Marine is over-sensitive about body exposure. After all, her parents? explosive divorce 1987 led her mother to take revenge by appearing nude in Playboy magazine. Madame Pierrette Le Pen wanted to ridicule her ?misogynistic, despot? husband who?d humiliated her with housemaid reference. So she posed wearing an all-revealing maid?s apron, white cap, black collar, high heels, nothing more, while performing household chores in sexy submissive servitude.
Woman lover president: In contrast, France?s longest serving, 1981-95, president Francois Mitterand?s reputation was coureur de femme (running behind woman), he loved women. They say his extramarital affairs were numerous. He met Anne Pingeot in a French village 1974 while preparing for his presidential campaign; they parented a daughter, Mazarine. As president he secretly provided his mistress and Mazarine with security at the taxpayer?s expense. The French public was unaware as Mitterand prevented such information from leaking out by ordering illegal wiretapping of journalists among others as part of his campaign against terrorism.
Mitterand had incredible political shrewdness. He?d joined Marshall Philippe Petain?s pro-Hitler-Germany government at Vichy 1940-44, then about-turned in 1943 to join the French Resistance. After World War II, Mitterand became a socialist, but such was his political acumen that conservative Charles de Gaulle appointed him minister. At the end of Mitterand?s two-term presidential tenure 1981-1995, he revealed Mazarine?s existence. French society appreciated that he?d recognised her, not abandoned her.
Amorous bling-bling president: Nicolas Sarkozy and his second wife Cecilia divorced soon after he became president in 2007. ?I don?t see myself as First Lady,? Cecilia had said. ?It bores me.? Sarkozy didn?t waste time feeling dejected. At a party he met Carla Bruni, Italian supermodel, singer and heiress, who?d walked off a live-in relationship with philosophy professor Raphael Enthoven. Carla and Nicolas became paparazzi fodder worldwide in a whirlwind 80-day romance. Their marriage in February 2008 starised sombre Elysee Palace, setting a new benchmark. Sarkozy now welcomes celebrity and multi-billionaire visitors, wears expensive suits, stylish sunglasses, conspicuously large wristwatches, which prompted newspaper Lib?ration to baptize him ?the bling-bling president.?
Christie?s International chose April 2008, when she accompanied Sarkozy as official First Lady to New York, to auction a black-and-white nude Carla Bruni photograph taken in 1993. It fetched $91,000, almost 20 times its high estimate. Two years later into marriage, rumours started on Twitter about it being shaky, that both Sarkozy and Bruni are supposedly no strangers to infidelity. According to British tabloid Sun, she?s remarked she?s ?easily bored by monogamy.? Gossip romantically links Bruni with musician Benjamin Biolay, and Sarkozy with ecology minister Chantal Jouanno.
Broken love presidential candidate: Sarkozy?s 2007 presidential election opponent, darling of public polls Segolene Royal, lost, many say, largely because of broken love and scant support from male chauvinistic socialist party members. The party?s general secretary, her domestic partner of 30 years who?d fathered her four children was Francois Hollande. She?d thrown Hollande out in 2006 when he started an affair with Paris Match celebrity magazine journalist, Val?rie Trierweiler, but hid their broken relationship until after her defeat. Officially declaring Valerie ?woman of my life? in 2010, Hollande slimmed 10kgs to become the 2012 Presidential candidate. Much to her chagrin, Valerie?s own magazine splashed her on the cover page as Hollande?s ?trump charm.?
Loss of presidential candidature in seven-minute sex scandal: Actually the Socialist Party?s hot candidate to defeat Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential race was Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), former IMF president. But seven minutes in New York?s Sofitel Hotel changed his stars. Hotel electronic key records say chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo entered DSK?s suite about 12.06pm. His BlackBerry phone recorded 12.13pm when he spoke to his daughter. For what happened in those seven minutes he has seven criminal sexual act charges slapped against him at New York Supreme Court, although his version is ?consensual sex, no rape, no constraint, no aggression, no criminal act.? Brilliant French journalist and heiress Anne Sinclair who?d experienced coup de foudre (sudden fiery love) in 1989 with DSK, they married 1991, rushed to New York to extricate her husband from this mess of lifelong imprisonment.
Presidential candidate with out-of-wedlock children and new girlfriend: Catholic society would generally frown on an unmarried person with four children and new girlfriend stepping into Elysee Palace, but polls are indicating Francois Hollande as the next president with 57% runoff. Rising above the Socialist Party backstab she received during her 2007 election campaign, Segolene Royal surprised everyone by campaigning for Francois Hollande in Rennes on March 25. France was waiting to see them kiss on stage. But they merely shook hands.
Protocol issues prevented unmarried Carla Bruni from accompanying her newest love Sarkozy to India 2008. As French First Lady in 2010, visiting Taj Mahal was for her ?like a dream.? Let?s watch France?s first election round today. If Hollande wins the runoff 6 May12, will he bring his amour (love) to India?s monument of love? With Presidential elections revealing underwear and political armour, France lives up to her coinage of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Shombit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com