PARIS (AP) – Someone has been appearing more and more often alongside French President Francois Hollande on official visits abroad and in high-level meetings in Elysee Palace. It’s no ordinary someone – it’s Segolene Royal, the president’s ex-partner and mother of his four children, and one of his most prominent government ministers.
As minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Royal is playing a key role in France’s preparations to host a landmark U.N. conference on climate later this year. But her new omnipresence at Hollande’s side is rankling critics who say she’s playing an outsize role in presidential politics.
Royal, 61, draws her special status from her personal relationship with the president – but also from her high-level political career.
While Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign followed her husband’s presidency, in the Hollande-Royal political couple, it was Royal’s star that rose first.
A heavy hitter in the Socialist Party, she ran for president in 2007, coming in second to Nicolas Sarkozy -the same year she announced her split from Hollande, after almost three decades together. Hollande then beat Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012.