IT TAKES a messy love life to put fire into the belly of a French president. At least that is how it seemed on January 14th, when President François Hollande, a Socialist, upturned the prevailing doctrine on the French left and promised cuts in both public spending and taxes, in order to help businesses create jobs and revive growth. He may have been emboldened by indignation, if not new love. Just four days previously, Closer, a celebrity magazine, had stunned France by publishing claims of a liaison between Mr Hollande and Julie Gayet, a French film actress.The magazine’s seven-page report included photographs of a figure in a crash helmet on the back of a scooter, driven by a security guard, arriving at an apartment building just across the street from the Elysée Palace. They also showed Ms Gayet turning up at the same address; and then the helmeted figure, wearing a pair of shiny black shoes that Closer said could only be Mr Hollande’s, leaving the building the next morning. The president did not deny the allegations, but said he “deplored the breach of respect for his private life”. The first lady, Valérie…
