Hollande’s former first lady in India on charity mission

Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-partner of French President Francois Hollande, flew to India yesterdayon a charity mission, despite Saturday’s announcement that the couple have split.

Trierweiler was going ahead with the trip to promote a French charity, a charity official said yesterday, in her first public appearance since it emerged that Hollande was having an affair with a French actress.

She was set to arrive in the financial hub Mumbai for the long-planned two-day trip organised by Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), despite no longer being France’s first lady.

“There is no doubt about her coming,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the charity was, however, “working on different assumptions” — meaning her schedule in India may change.

Airport sources in Paris confirmed she was expected to arrive in Mumbai around midnight last night.

Hollande, 59, said on Saturday he had split with longstanding partner Trierweiler, 48, after revelations earlier this month in the French press of his affair with actress Julie Gayet.

Hollande announced his separation from Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist party and a presidential candidate in 2007, just after she lost the election to Nicolas Sarkozy.

He then started living openly with Trierweiler. Although she is not married to Hollande, she assumed the role of first lady at official functions after Hollande’s election in 2012.

Meanwhile, thousands marched through Paris yesterday in a “Day of Anger” against Hollande’s policies, including his decision to legalise gay marriage.

The protest called by a motley group of some 50 small and mainly right-wing organisations, however, failed to attract bigger anti-Hollande movements.

Organisers claimed a turnout of some 120,000 people. However, police estimated there were 17,000 people at the protest, held under pouring rain.