PARIS -- Does the president of a 21st-century democratic nation have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or is he sworn to some kind of secular celibacy . . . at least in appearance? The French media gossip mill has been grinding over Nicolas Sarkozy's romantic life ever since the recently divorced president met Carla Bruni at a dinner party in the home of PR wizard Jacques Ségala in mid-November. Today, as the nation totters between the high price of gasoline and the threat of terrorism -- the 30th edition of the Paris-Dakar rally was canceled because of credible threats from al Qaeda in the Maghreb -- 650 journalists of over 40 different nationalities yesterday gathered for the president's first press conference, craning necks and cupping ears to get the first official echoes of a forthcoming "I do."
Rosalyne Febvere of French international TV channel France 24 popped the question. Complimenting the press for its exquisite patience in waiting until the second question to interrogate him about his private life, the president replied frankly and logically. He has deliberately chosen to break with the longstanding "lying" in this domain. A president has neither more nor less right than his fellow citizens to the pursuit of happiness. He and Carla Bruni chose to be open without flaunting their relationship. Yes, they did take her 5-year-old son to Disneyland near Paris. "How original," mocks the president. "If the photos are shocking, don't send photographers." In Egypt in December, they visited the pyramids. "How original," exclaims the president. "If you don't want to instrumentalize it, don't send photographers." He concluded: The relationship with Carla "is serious." But it's not up to the Journal de Dimanche, the paper that reported a wedding for Feb. 8 or 9, to set the date. You'll probably hear about it after it's done, he said.
Are they going to elope? I don't think so! Even in these days of a snug European Union, a president wouldn't marry out of his country. But isn't it touching to see the eternal French values of sensual love honored, with variations, at the summit of the state, in the persons of a first-generation Frenchman with origins in Hungary and Thessaloniki, and an Italian Frenchwoman whose family moved to France to escape threats from the Brigata Rossa?
French media, like alcoholics, take their first potshot at President Sarkozy every morning before breakfast. They snoop, snap, splash every bit of gossip they can get their hands on, and then accuse the president of "le people-ization" of political life. "People," in English in the French text, means gossip about stars, or "people." As millions of disappointed wannabes can testify, a person can't become a "people" unless the media consent.
As a quick review of postwar presidents will confirm, Nicolas Sarkozy is closer to the romantic lead than many of his predecessors. And as he rightly observed, their private lives were covered with a veil of "hypocrisy." The press, the secret service and the betrayed wives knew. When the citizens finally knew -- when François Mitterand's illegitimate daughter Mazarine Pingeot appeared with her mother at the funeral -- opinion-makers led the public in a chorus of oohs and aaahs. How chic of them -- wife, mistress, children and journalists -- to hide this from us all these years, and how super chic of them to display it now, on this solemn occasion. It would be too boring to tick off the turpitudes of all those stuffy-looking heads of state.
The difference is that Nicolas Sarkozy's love life looks sexy. His second wife, Cécilia, former Schiaparelli model but no empty-headed clothes horse, was rather coldly elegant and, in the past few years, looked sad and lost her dazzle, though she was no sexless first lady. Carla Bruni, whose high cheekbones echo Cécilia's and suggest a possible fascination with his Hungarian origins, has not one but a whole series of reputations that would make a 19th-century Englishwoman blush.
Carla Bruni is the liberated woman that feminine magazines have glorified for decades. That kind of freewheeling, unashamedly hearty sexual appetite and success has been the role model ever since . . . well, ever since Simone de Beauvoir, whose nude photo (back view) is on the cover of this week's Nouvel Observateur. It dates from her fling with Nelson Algren. The staid priestess of feminine independence, the dry companion of philosophical guru Sartre, went head over heels in love with Algren, offering to be his doormat and who knows what else.
President Sarkozy offered Carla Bruni a pink heart-shaped diamond. She offered him a Piaget watch. The president, looking like any French father, was photographed in Petra with Ms. Bruni's son Aurélien perched on his shoulders. A lawyer for the boy's father, philosophy professor Raphaël Enthoven, has warned media to respect the child's privacy. Two years ago Bruni separated from Mr. Enthoven, who was formerly married to Justine Lévy, the daughter of pop-philosopher Bernard-Henri (or as everyone calls him BHL), who is married to the actress and singer Arielle Dombasle.
So what else is new? Power has always sought beauty, which has always been attracted to power. (One of the more far-fetched of the many conquests of this possible future first lady was, reportedly, former Socialist PM Laurent Fabius . . . which she denies.) Recomposed families are all right for the common people. Why should they be denied to Mr. Sarkozy? And what exactly explains the mixed feelings provoked by the undisguised romantic adventures of a charming young president?
It's the shattered dream of romantic purity that haunts our modern age. The secret hope of perfect love, virgin, innocent, immutable. Somewhere in the corner of every heart lies the wild hope of escaping from our hard-won freedom to love and lose, to try and try again, expose our intimacy, and retrieve it, hopefully unsullied. We want one love, now and forever.
And if the couple on the wedding cake can't spin in eternal fulfillment, we have expected our presidents to maintain the illusion. Shall we blame Nicolas Sarkozy for smashing that illusion? Why not just wish him well in his new life.
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