The headline was based on a poll conducted by the magazine which named the former presidential candidate as the most irritating politician of the year.

Royal denounced the “verbal aggression” and “violent character” of the magazine, reported daily newspaper Libération on Friday.

In the poll, Royal narrowly beat former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Green party politician Eva Joly to the dubious honour.

Ségolène Royal was selected by the Socialist party to be its presidential candidate in 2007. She lost out to current president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Royal is the president of the western Poitou-Charentes region and recently stood in primary elections to select the party’s candidate for the 2012 presidential vote.

She came fourth out of six candidates in a race that was won by her former partner and father of her four children, François Hollande.

Royal has threatened to make an official complaint about the magazine, complaining that the story amounted to an attack on her as a “mother, with such remarks being particularly obnoxious for children, even adults.”

She also complained that the magazine was a “public insult with regard to her functions as an elected official who carries out her duties with dignity and honesty,” and that the remarks were an “attack on her national and international reputation.”

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