PARIS: France is abuzz over President Francois Hollande's seemingly closer relationship with his former partner Segolene Royal, following a series of public appearances the pair have made together and media suggestions that she has become a stand-in for first lady.
Mr Hollande, 60, and Ms Royal, 61, who have four children together, officially parted after her failed bid for the French presidency in 2007, when he was already in a relationship with Valerie Trierweiler, a political journalist.
Ms Royal spent years in the political wilderness after Ms Trierweiler reportedly issued a "fatwa" against her holding any government post. But she returned to the cabinet last year after Mr Hollande separated from Ms Trierweiler following his secret affair with the actress Julie Gayet.
The president has since kept his private life under wraps, making no official appearances with Ms Gayet. Meanwhile, Ms Royal, as minister for ecology, sustainable development and energy, has been appearing more often at Mr Hollande's side on official visits and at Elysee meetings - to the annoyance of some who resent her hotline to the president.
Nouvel Observateur, a French weekly, even called her "The Vice-President" in a cover story last month - a title that doesn't officially exist in France.
At a meeting last month with the former American Vice-President Al Gore about climate change, Mr Hollande greeted his guest, but then waited for Ms Royal to arrive, so that she could join the line-up for photographs.
The rumours became more persistent earlier this month when Ms Royal accompanied Mr Hollande to welcome the King and Queen of Spain on the steps of the presidential palace.
She also accompanied him on a trip to Cuba, even speaking on his behalf, and saying "I" instead of "the president" before correcting herself. The pair gazed affectionately at each other on a stop in Martinique. Suggestions of a rekindled relationship appear to have not surprised Ms Trierweiler, who has previously admitted to being "hysterically jealous" of their 30-year bond.
"They are inseparable. It goes over their children. They both share an unbridled taste for politics. Power is their reason for living, their mutual obsession," Ms Trierweiler told Le Parisien recently.
Asked this week what the French should make of their closeness, Ms Royal laughed off the question, saying: "Nothing. It's a question of protocol. I was just doing my job."
But the deeply unpopular French president could have a political reason to keep Ms Royal close at hand. Polls suggest she is considerably more popular than him, and commentators are already predicting that she could be a trump card in countering the far-Right Front National leader Marine Le Pen, should Mr Hollande run for re-election in 2017.
