It’s ‘Dallas at the Élysée’ after Twitter jibe

With a single tweet, France’s first lady has managed to take a swipe at her husband’s ex, put herself publicly at odds with the president, and thrown a spanner in the works of his Socialist party.

Valerie Trierweiler posted an apparently innocent message on Twitter wishing a relatively unknown politician good luck in his bid to win a seat in the National Assembly in Sunday’s second round parliamentary vote.

But the tweet stunned France as it was clear that the real target was Ségolène Royal, the woman who shared President François Hollande’s life for three decades and is the mother of their four children.