On the occasion of the 800th show by Pascal Vrebos, François Hollande was on the set of RTL TVI this Sunday.
He was the head of the French state from 2015 to 2017. François Hollande was the guest of Pascal Vrebos on January 12. The former French president notably returned to the difficulty of preserving his private life when one is elected head of the Elysée Palace.
Pascal Vrebos: It is sometimes said that the French presidency is even more than the Belgian monarchy. Have you ever felt yourself in the role of a King “François II”, since there had been François Ier with Mitterand?
François Hollande: In terms of skills and powers, the comparison goes to the side of the President of the French Republic. But in terms of longevity, the presidency does not necessarily last long. We are fully president, with skills including bringing forces abroad (the nuclear button, deterrence) but we are president knowing that it will be short. Five years is very little.
PV: Did you sometimes not have the feeling that this power could last all the time?
FH: This is an illusion. The president is a citizen elected by the French (…) but he must always stay in contact with the French people.
PV: You wanted to be a “normal” president. Is it possible with such a symbolic function?
FH: The function is exceptional. But the president must always understand and understand what the French people are, and as we can see, they are not an easy people (smiles).
PV: I could have joined my lover on a motorcycle. But you, without protection, it’s impossible.
In January 2014, Closer had published photos of the head of state on a scooter, helmet on his head, joining the actress and director Julie Gayet.
F H: (Smiles) The president always has protection whatever the situation. Heads of government in Europe do not have the same security and living conditions. The French president lives in a palace, the Elysée. It is very difficult to escape. Now, every president of the French Republic had, at one point, this need to go for a walk.
PV: Why did your services abandon you in a raging weather? There is no umbrella at the Elysée?
Pascal Vrebos alludes in particular to this August 25, 2014 during which François Hollande had participated in a ceremony at the Île de Sein. He must have made a speech in the pouring rain. The French then discovered a drenched president, without the slightest umbrella.
FH: There must not be an umbrella because the president cannot be different from those he visits. I will take an example. I was on the Ile de Sein, in Brittany, and I had to pay tribute to these fighters who left to join General de Gaulle in 1940. It was raining, a hail fell on us. They weren’t protected and I needed an umbrella?
PV: You are a modest man, you rarely give up your feelings. And there as a president, your privacy is spread over a tweet. How did you experience this display?
FH: Things have changed a lot with social media. There is no more privacy. It is painful because family life justifies protection. At first, I wanted to live in my apartment but it was impossible. I was being watched, watched and there were security conditions. The President of the French Republic no longer has a private life, he is entirely dedicated to his function.
PV: Do we emerge unscathed from this supreme power?
FH: No, but we come out bigger than we are by the function occupied. We must accept the servitudes of an eminent function.
–
