France's president François Hollande will face hundreds of journalists this afternoon in a press conference at the Élysée Palace, four days after Closer magazine revealed his relationship with actor Julie Gayet, precipitating the hospital admission of his companion and first lady, Valérie Trierweiler.
French media have dropped the pretence of referring to an "alleged" affair. The assertions made by Closer magazine – that the president repeatedly spent nights with Ms Gayet in a borrowed apartment just a block from the Élysée Palace – are contested by no one.
Sources at the Élysée told Le Monde that Mr Hollande went to the apartment a dozen times since last autumn, always as a passenger on a motor scooter from the Élysée fleet.
Ms Trierweiler's continued stay in hospital has raised the question of her role in Mr Hollande's state visit to Washington. Ms Trierweiler accompanied Mr Hollande on his last visit in 2012. She said Michelle Obama gave her advice on the difficulties of being first lady.
The investigative website Médiapart and Le Point magazine have reported links between Emmanuelle Hauck, the friend of Ms Gayet who lent the couple her rented apartment at 20 rue du Cirque, a block from the Élysée, and the Corsican Mafia.
Ms Hauck, who was born in Corsica, has two sons with Michel Ferracci, a Corsican actor who last November received a suspended sentence in connection with money siphoned from a Paris gambling house to the Corsican Brise de Mer gang.
After they separated, Ms Hauck became the companion of François Masini, another Corsican who was involved in hold-ups and was suspected of ties to the Brise de Mer. Ms Hauck was questioned three times after Mr Masini was assassinated in May 2013.
The career of Sophie Hatt, the policewoman in charge of presidential security, is in danger. Although Mr Hollande’s bodyguards accompanied him to the apartment, they did not investigate Ms Hauck’s background, nor did they notice the paparazzi who followed him and rented a nearby apartment.
Mr Hollande’s staff had hoped today’s press conference would help him rebound from the catastrophic end of 2013.
Leonarda Dibrani (15), a Roma schoolgirl who was expelled from France with her family, belittled him on live television.
Breton Bonnets rouges started a tax revolt that made the government tremble. The president failed to keep his promise to "reverse the curve of unemployment" and broke all records for unpopularity.
Now Jean-François Copé, the leader of the opposition UMP, says the Closer revelations are "disastrous for the presidential office".
Mr Copé has reminded the public that Mr Hollande promised during his campaign that his behaviour “will be exemplary at all times”.
The Élysée is determined to prevent questions about Mr Hollande’s private life dominating today’s press conference.
The president is to elaborate on the “pact of responsibility” between the government and business, which he proposed in his televised New Year’s Eve address. He said the pact would be based on “lower charges on labour, fewer constraints on business activity and, in return, more hiring and more social dialogue”.
