Thank You for This Moment by Valérie Trierweiler

Author:Valérie Trierweiler [Clemence Sebag]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849548496
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2014-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Late May 2014

A dismal 3 per cent of voters say they would vote for François Hollande if he were to run again in 2017. He has become a laughing stock once more, just as he was four years ago. I am pained to witness such an incredible waste, angry at that self-sabotage. Obviously in a private capacity but also as a Socialist Party voter. How could he have reached that low point? How could he have fallen to 3 per cent again? Memories flood me, like bubbles rising up to the surface.

Back to square one: when he was preparing to become a candidate in the presidential election and nobody had any faith in him. He was the only one who believed he could pull it off. As for me, I was prepared to follow him to the end of the world and back. It all began one morning in November 2010. While he was getting dressed in our room, he mentioned running for President.

It was not a subject we had previously discussed. I knew it was his goal and that was how we would sometimes broach it, with that euphemism, ‘the goal’. We had never spelled it out, we had never spoken the words ‘presidential election’. He veiled his ambition in modesty. We had only lifted the taboo once, as he drove us past rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in my car. ‘Look, we’re driving past home’ he said as we passed the Élysée Palace. It certainly came as a surprise, and I roared with laughter. He had always known how to make me laugh. No subject was too serious to joke about, including himself – he was a genius at self-deprecation.

That November morning was altogether different: there was not a hint of sarcasm in his eyes. He was serious and he asked me for the first time what I thought: ‘After what happened in 2002 and 2007, you cannot afford to get it wrong. If Ségolène Royal’s defeat has taught us anything it is that you have only one question to ask yourself. Either you think you are the best and you go for it, or you don’t and you let somebody else stand.’ He did not hesitate for one second before answering: ‘I am the best.’

‘In that case,’ I said, ‘put your money where your mouth is.’

We continued to talk. He had no doubts about his abilities. He was always convinced that he would prevail over Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who at the time was a Socialist Party candidate and was leading in the polls by a long way. François was convinced that Ségolène Royal would not run if he did. He had let her have her go in 2007 and this time it was his turn.

He had been preparing his candidacy with the utmost discretion. He had started from the very bottom of the pecking order. In 2008, following the disastrous Reims Congress, François was completely discredited. Ségolène Royal was blaming him for her defeat in the presidential elections. Any debacle calls for a scapegoat and this time it had landed on him.

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