François Hollande’s scooter, or the loving transport of “the man with the helmet”
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Sn the road leading to the 2012 presidential election, François Hollande was traveling on a scooter. Quiet, he overtook everyone. The socialist leader fulfilled his agenda by smoothly piloting his Piaggio MP3, a machine appreciated by city dwellers too in a hurry to rely on public transport and modern enough to reject taxis or private cars. With its three wheels, this model is very stable, but it is not made for those looking to weave through traffic. A reformist, social-democratic scooter, in a way. The ideal frame for a future “regular president”far from the image of DSK descending from a Porsche Panamera.
During the socialist primary, the helmeted appearance of François Hollande in “one” of the Parisian-Today in France had made people talk. His rival Vincent Peillon had deemed this image more evocative of“a pizza delivery man” than a presidential icon. Once inducted as a candidate, the herald of the Socialist Party (PS) rebelled against this ostracism: “Would this mode of travel be infamous? Would it be so ordinary that it would bring the person who uses it into disrepute? » And, in a cry from the heart, he added, about his three-wheeler: “I take it less now, for safety reasons, but it costs me. Frankly, it costs me…” The sacrifice was not in vain. The primary smiled at him; presidential, too.
Expedited termination
For François Hollande, grabbing a handlebar has never been a posture. When he led the PS, the first secretary appreciated being able to travel around Paris using a faster and more pleasant means of transport than four-wheelers. More discreet, too, when you don’t want to spread out your schedule in broad daylight.
One fine morning in January 2014, the scooter caught up with the president. The magazine Closer publishes photos showing him about to take a seat as a passenger on an MP3 piloted by a bodyguard. Direction, a building in the rue du Cirque, from which will leave, a few moments later, Julie Gayet. We know the rest: Elysian vaudeville and an expeditious break with his partner, Valérie Trierweiler, who will publish her Thank you for this moment (Les Arènes) written in vitriol.
From this moment, the Dutch scooter is no longer the favorite mobility instrument of the president with good frankness, but the sneaky vehicle of the infidelities of a fickle head of state. A ball to drag, or rather to push, like a broken down bike. We will even blame “the man with the helmet” to have been surprised in the back of a Piaggio and not a Peugeot Metropolis, the three-wheeler made in France. A resilient personality, François Hollande has given up nothing. In April 2018, to students from Cergy-Pontoise who asked him if he was more “Uber or scooter”he answered without hesitation: “Scooter, of course! »
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