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Élysée, The Daytime Drama Continues

Worldcrunch

LIBERATION, LE PARISIEN (France)

PARIS –All's fair in love and politics, especially in France.

Two days after First Lady Valérie Trierweiler'smorning tweet set French politics in a tizzy, President François Hollande's former longtime partner Ségolène Royal has fired back. Royal granted the French newspaper Libération her first interview after Trierweiler took to the twitterwaves Tuesday to flaunt her support for the candidate challenging Royal in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Royal, herself a former presidential candidate and mother to the current President's four children, explained her initial silence on the French twittergate: "I didn't want to react immediately because the blow was too violent. But it doesn't mean I wasn't affected or wounded, I'm not a robot," the French newspaper Le Parisien reports, quoting Libération.

Trierweiler's support of Olivier Farloni for the upcoming second round of the legislative elections in La Rochelle, was both a personal and political slap, Royal said. "As a politician, I ask for respect, the same way the support the President gave me should be respected, as I am the only candidate from the presidential majority," Le Parisien quotes. Olivier Farloni was indeed kicked out of the Socialist Party for challenging Royal, whom Hollande officially backed five years after their longtime relationship ended.

Royal said she was "asking for simple things: respect for the political battle and for the fact that she is a mother, whose children also hear what is said."

Stay tuned for the next episode to see if the would-be "wicked stepmother" tweets again...

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

And If Ukraine's Fate Was In The Hands Of Republican Senators And Viktor Orban?

In the U.S., Republican senators called on to approve military aid to Kyiv are blackmailing the Biden administration on an unrelated matter. In Europe, French President Macron will be dining with the Hungarian Prime Minister, who has threatened to block aid to Ukraine as well.

photo of viktor orban walking into a room

Orban will play all his cards

Sergei Savostyanov/TASS via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Make no mistake: military aid to Ukraine is at risk. And to understand why, just take a look at the name of French President Emmanuel Macron’s dinner guest Thursday at the Elysée palace in Paris: Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, and Europe’s No. 1 troublemaker.

Orban is threatening to veto a new 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine at a European Council meeting next week. He could also block Ukraine’s negotiations to enter the European Union, an important issue that has provided some hope for this war-torn country. These are votes on which the unanimity of the "27" EU member states is required.

But this is not the only obstacle in the path of Western aid: the United States is also immersed in a political psychodrama, of which Ukraine is the victim. A new $60 billion aid package from the Biden administration has stalled in Congress: Republicans are demanding legislation to shut down the border with Mexico to stop immigration.

What does this have to do with Ukraine? Nothing, besides legislative blackmail.

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