For anyone who hasn't seen it on the news yet, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has separated from his wife. Evidently it is by mutual agreement, and they both seem to have other relationships ongoing already. One of my professors made an interesting media relations point about this in class today. Rumors had been circulating for a while about this; I remember seeing some almost two weeks ago. But the timing of offical annoucement was planned to be released yesterday afternoon, so that it would be on the newstands today, diverting attention from the strike. Two observations on this. First, the French seemed to take it for granted that Sarkozy had a mistress and haven't seemed to care at all about the divorce. According to my French teacher, they all are completely willing to separate the private life from the public figure. Which leads to the second point: if this were happening in America, I'd say odds are good that a politician would try to use the strike story to bury the separation. Preferably on a Friday afternoon. This divorce is raising some interesting legal issues for the French, namely the question of whether it is even possible, given that the Constitution bars legal action from being brought against the President. Both candidates from the Presidential race how left their partners: Ségolène Royal left her partner François Hollande back in June after losing the race to Sarkozy. As you can see, I've decided this needed some commemorative photoshopping.
