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Francois Hollande, the President-elect of France, is said to be on course to make his former partner Segolene Royal the most powerful female politician in the country, despite the bitterness of their separation after 30 years and four children together. Hollande and his fellow Socialist Miss Royal still have their personal differences and she does not get on with his current partner Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist 11 years her junior, the Daily Mail reported. Only last year, while Hollande and his former partner were contesting the Socialist nomination for the presidency, Royal said “Can anyone recall anything Francois Hollande has done in 30 years?” But now the 58-year-old has indicated that she will become president of the National Assembly, France ’s parliament, when Hollande announces his cabinet after his inauguration next week. The job is considered the most prestigious in France after president and prime minister. She was asked on French television if it would be the right job for her. “I think so,” she replied with a beaming smile, adding that it would help her “diversify my experiences” and make her “more useful to the Left”. Royal, who has always been a controversial figure, was also asked if she expected some Socialist MPs to be resentful if she did get the job, and replied “Everything will be fine.” She angered many in the party by wanting to stand as presidential candidate again this year, despite being beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 in an election which was wide open for the Socialists to win after 12 years of the ineffectual Jacques Chirac. But she is styling herself as the woman who helped sweep Hollande, 57, to power. She said France “was not ready for a woman president” in 2007 but claimed that many of her ideas were incorporated into Hollande’s campaign. The two met when they were both studying at ENA, the prestigious graduate school for France ’s future administrators. Despite their long relationship and the children they had together they never wed because both believe that marriage is a “bourgeois institution”. They officially split in 2007, although Hollande’s affair with Trierweiler is known to have started long before.

France’s President-elect to make former partner most powerful woman