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HOLLANDE

Chief rival backs Stoltenberg as Nato head

Jens Stoltenberg's chief rival for the leadership of Nato has informally conceded defeat, writing on Twitter that the former Norwegian prime minister would "indeed be a good Nato Secretary General" and that "Poland will support him."

Chief rival backs Stoltenberg as Nato head
Radoslaw Sikorski at a recent meeting on the Ukraine crisis. Photo: Flickr/Estonian Foreign Ministry
Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has long been mooted as a potential Secretary General, and as recently as Thursday night, France's Le Monde newspaper wrote that Russia's annexation of the Crimea had given his candidacy increased relevance. 
 
Sikorksi's statement came in response to a tweet from Erik Dale, a Norwegian who works at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. 
 
On Thursday evening Dale tweeted, "Would love @jensstoltenberg as @NATO sec-gen, but maybe time for our 'new' members? Hoping @sikorskiradek joins us in Brussels." 
 
Sikorksi then replied. "Thank you for the sentiment, but Jens Stoltenberg will indeed be a good NATO SG.  Poland will support him." 
 
According to Norway's Dagsavisen newspaper, Stoltenberg met French President François Hollande on Saturday for an interview for the Secretary General post. 
 
"This was regarded as a job interview," the source told Dagsavisen. 

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MEDIA

French president’s ex girlfriend says she has been sacked by magazine

Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-girlfriend of former French president François Hollande, said on Thursday that she had been sacked by Paris Match magazine.

French president's ex girlfriend says she has been sacked by magazine
Valerie Trierweiler wrote a tell-all book about the former president's affair. Photo: AFP

The journalist took revenge on Hollande for spurning her for actress Julie Gayet with a sensational 2014 kiss-and-tell memoir called Thank You for This Moment, which all but sank Hollande's presidency.

The book became an instant bestseller, and Hollande, a Socialist, never lived down his alleged references to the “toothless” poor.

Trierweiler, 55, had worked for the glossy weekly as a political correspondent, interviewer and columnist for three decades.

 

“I discovered in the middle of my summer holidays in an extremely brutal way that I have been sacked from Paris Match after 30 years,” Trierweiler said on Twitter.

“This sacking was for no reason and has left me shocked and astonished,” she added.

Trierweiler was famously admitted to hospital after Hollande's affair was revealed by paparazzi images of his nightly visits by scooter to Gayet's apartment.

The politician had tried to portray himself as a safe pair of hands “Mr Normal” in contrast to his mercurial predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

As well as spending most of her career at Paris Match, Trierweiler also interviews politicians for the French television channel Direct 8.

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