Le Slap: France wonders what it means for Macron's marriage – and presidency

The French tend not to care about their leaders' private lives, but that was before 'slapgate'

- Kim Willsher

Historically, France has had a laissez-faire attitude towards politicians' private lives.

So-called "Anglo-Saxon" sex scandals baffle them and foreign journalists are warned questions stop at the bedroom door.

The Socialist president François Mitterrand led a double life with a secret mistress and child, who were no secret to the country's self-censoring media but were hidden from the public. Nicolas Sarkozy publicly flaunted his relationship with the supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, whom he later married.

However, Sarkozy's successor – and Emmanuel Macron's predecessor – François Hollande, discovered there is one thing worse than a personal scandal when he was caught on a scooter delivering early morning croissants to his lover, the actor Julie Gayet (now his wife), and that is ridicule. The affair could be forgiven - and was - but the appearance of the stout president, nicknamed Flanby after a wobbly pudding, on a scooter less so.