The socialist president who was elected on promises to defend the poor, demonize and tax the super-wealthy, and claimed to be a man of the people, spends $11,000 on haircuts every month. “We will continue to hit those who attack us”, he said.
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“You can reproach me on anything you like, but not on that”, he said, visibly uncomfortable with the subject.
He vowed ever stronger security measures – calling up reservists and extending a state of emergency – as he reached for familiar, and new words to boost the morale of a battered nation.
Critics expressed surprise that a leader whose hair is thinning could spend so much per month, when a posh men’s haircut in Paris costs about 50 euros (£42).
Satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine triggered the fuss with a report, later confirmed by the government, that the 61-year-old was paying almost €10,000 a month to keep his hair in shape. The new laws make it easier to hire and fire workers and to expand the working week.
“I must protect France, it’s fragile, it can crack at any moment”, he told journalists on the national day commemorating the storming of the Bastille and the liberal ideas that gave birth to the French Revolution. Hollande, 61, is not known for having unusually hard hair.
On the occasion of the French National Day, Hollande was asked about the barber, whose hiring costs was revealed last Tuesday, as the French leader explained that the Elysee budget, which was 109 million euros ($121.1 million) in 2012 under his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, has dropped to 100 million ($111.1 million) annually under his rule. “He is always there”.
Hollande’s concession to vanity may be in part a need to impress his once secret lover actress Julie Gayet.
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Trierweiler took to Twitter to say that Hollande initially did not know about the high salary for his barber, and was furious when he found out.
