Why France's top power couple is making political waves

Telegraph

14 hours ago

They are arguably France's top power couple.
Lea Salamé, 45, the co-host of the country's top morning radio news show for 11 years, has just been picked to anchor the evening TV news on state-run France 2 – the equivalent of BBC News at Ten.
Her partner Raphael Glucksmann, a centre-Left heavyweight, also 45, is limbering up to be a presidential contender. On Monday, he presented his 'vision for France', a 42-point plan to 'regenerate democracy 'and 'de-monarchise' the country when Emmanuel Macron's second, and final, term comes to an end in 2027.
The high-profile pair has shone a fresh spotlight on the (some would say cosy) relationship between French politicians and political journalists, which has given rise to a string of romances over the years and continues to raise eyebrows over potential conflicts of interest.
The sudden focus on their relationship comes as the race to succeed Mr Macron – whose presidency is increasingly rudderless domestically – is heating up, with several potential presidential candidates showing their colours in recent days.
Mr Glucksmann, an MEP and darling of bourgeois bohemian Left-wing moderates and Greens, emerged as a possible national leader last June after a strong showing in the European Parliament elections.
His Socialist-backed Place Publique came third, almost overtaking Mr Macron's Renaissance party. Jordan Bardella's hard-Right National Rally finished way out in front.
The staunch European federalist and Russia critic has since urged the French Left to jettison ties with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the radical Left-wing firebrand, and return to its moderate, social democratic roots.
The ambitious power duo's sudden surge in media prominence has sparked questions over whether they can both keep their jobs in the coming months.
Aymeric Caron, an MP allied with Mr Mélenchon's France Unbowed party, said that while he respected Ms Salamé as a journalist, 'her partner is a politician who wants to play a leading role, yet the [evening] news offers us an interpretation of events and society with a hierarchy of information and political interviews. I wonder how this mix will work in terms of public service.'
Antoine Chuzeville, a French national union of journalists (SNJ) rep at France Télévisions, a state broadcaster, added: 'If [Me Glucksmann] finds himself in a major controversy in early September, it will be very complicated for her.'
However, he told Gala magazine the French were now used to such situations, pointing to the so-called 'Anne Sinclair precedent'.
Ms Sinclair was France's best-known female political chat show host when she became romantically attached to former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 1988. She withdrew from the 7/7 show in 1997 when he took up his finance ministry post to avoid a conflict of interest.
DSK, as he was known, later saw his presidential ambitions scuppered when he was arrested in New York in 2011 on sexual abuse charges of a hotel maid, charges that were later dropped.
Quizzed on Monday, Mr Glucksmann promised: 'The issue will be decided in a completely transparent manner that will avoid any conflict of interest. She is she, and I am me. It's 2025, and I couldn't imagine discussing with her whether she should or shouldn't do something so important for her career because we are involved in a political process.
'So, things are out in the open, transparent, very clear.'
Ms Salamé said she could withdraw from her job if Mr Glucksmann officially threw down the presidential gauntlet, but that the French were now mature enough to accept they both had high-flying jobs they could keep separate: 'Times have changed, and the French, including politicians, are much more feminist than one might think.'
Media interest in the couple came as the 'pre-campaign' for the French presidency is starting to gather pace despite two years remaining in Mr Macron's second five-year term.
The centrist French president lost his absolute majority in disastrous snap legislative elections last June that neutered his domestic powers. Not only that but the results left a deeply divided parliament and since then a string of prime ministers have been unable to make headway amid the constant threat of no-confidence motions.
After a year in limbo, Mr Macron could theoretically now call fresh elections.
Alain Duhamel, one of France's highest-profile political analysts, told The Telegraph: 'There's uncertainty about how long the government will last, and since Macron is regaining his power of dissolution, there's a certain amount of uncertainty about what might happen in the next, let's say four or five months.
'And from this point of view, some people are saying, now's the time to make a move before the political scene changes again, so let's make a mark.'
Against this backdrop, Mr Glucksmann is the second potential candidate to test the waters this week. Dominique de Villepin, Jacques Chirac's swashbuckling foreign minister who famously said 'non' to the US-led war in Iraq war at the UN in 2003, launched his own Humanist France party and released a book – de rigueur for French presidential hopefuls – called The Power To Say No.
Nouvel Obs, a French news magazine, said the title was 'misleading' as it really meant ''yes' to a presidential candidacy in 2027'.
The 71-year-old Napoleon fan, who has never held elected office and harks from the centre-Right, has launched a phoenix-style comeback largely sparked by the Israel-Gaza conflict.
His defence of the Palestinian cause and De Gaulle-style pro-Arab stance has seen him become an unlikely hero of the radical Left. He was recently mobbed at the Fete de l'Huma, an annual Communist bash organised by L'Humanité, a far-Left newspaper. His central tenet is to unite the French in the defence of 'social justice and republican order'.
Mr Villepin argues that France needs an impartial and experienced statesman in a world 'entering the age of the new despots' who believe 'freedom is a luxury that today's world can no longer afford'.
His panache and diplomatic credentials have seen him surprisingly crowned France's most popular political figure for the second straight month. However, in terms of voter intentions, he is languishing at the 2.5-5 per cent mark.
'De Villepin has alienated all Right-wing voters, and those on the Left like him but will never vote for him,' a senior member of the conservative Republicans party told Valeurs Actuelles. 'For the moment, he only talks about international issues. The day he ventures into economic issues, the honeymoon will quickly come to an end.'
Further Left, Mr Mélenchon is expected to run for a fourth time. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, the ex-Trotskyist, who came third in 2022, said he was ready, adding: 'If it's me, it's me, if it's someone else, it's someone else, but we'll take the decision that makes us the most effective electorally.'
On the Right, a raft of other potential candidates are jostling for position, notably the interior minister Bruno Retailleau and Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister, while Gabriel Attal, the ex-Macron prime minister, hopes to replace his former boss.
Meanwhile, the biggest potential presidential hitters continue to plough their furrow, albeit with a string of handicaps.
Marine Le Pen still hopes to run but is stymied by an electoral ban over a recent corruption conviction that cannot be overturned until next year.
Polls suggest the hard-Right leader would come way out in front in round one of presidential elections, as would Mr Bardella, her 29-year-old lieutenant. Amid reported tensions between the two, this week Ms Le Pen conceded: 'I have accepted the possibility that I may be unable to run. Jordan has accepted the possibility that he may have to take up the torch. Until then, I will continue to fight.'
Currently, the chief rival to Ms Le Pen and Mr Bardella is Edouard Philippe, Mr Macron's popular ex-prime minister, who announced his presidential intentions in 2020.
Like Mr Villepin, the centre-Right mayor of Le Havre also released a book this month. Called The Price of Our Lies, it is similarly alarmist about France's decline and offers pledges to fight populism and to enact labour and pension reforms.
But Mr Philippe this week faced a legal complaint from a civil servant over alleged bullying, favouritism and illegal influence peddling. He dismissed the complaint as a 'sad vendetta' by 'a civil servant whose contract was not renewed'.
Mr Duhamel said he did not think the complaint would torpedo his ambitions. 'But I don't think Philippe is active and visible enough at the moment. That's apparently his strategy, but I don't think it's the best one,' he said, pointing out that he is being caught up by Mr Retailleau, the interior minister, in the polls.
With two years to go before the presidential elections and no national mandate bar his mayoral post, 'his problem is staying power,' added Christelle Craplet in Le Soir, a political scientist.