French president’s companion regrets tweet

PARIS, France – French First Lady Valerie Trierweiler has said she will now think twice before tweeting, a month after she used the microblogging site to undermine her rival, the president’s former partner.

Trierweiler sent out a tweet wishing good luck to an opponent of Segolene Royal — Francois Hollande’s ex-partner and mother of their four children — in last month’s legislative election.

Olivier Falorni, who was kicked out of the Socialist Party for refusing to step aside to allow Royal to run in his La Rochelle fiefdom, trounced her with 63% of the vote.

“I will count to 10 before tweeting,” Trierweiler told French television on Saturday.

Hollande had said earlier in the day: “Private affairs are resolved in private. And I have told this to those close to me so they can scrupulously accept this principle.”

The tweet attracted widespread media coverage with the French press calling it an embarrassment to Hollande shortly after his own election victory in the presidential race.

There has long been speculation of intense rivalry between Royal and Trierweiler, who acquired the nickname Tweetweiler over the affair.

Hollande stood loyally by Royal as she battled Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in the 2007 race, but he had reportedly been in a relationship since 2005 with Trierweiler, a twice-divorced 47-year-old mother of three. – Agence France-Presse