François Hollande's Kazakh fur hat and coat photo does wonders for his "plonker" image - yet again

The French president, François Hollande, might have a reputation for being an academic egghead  - an alumnus of the prestigious École nationale d'administration (ENA) and all that.

And he's equally well-known for cracking jokes (not always successfully) and (unfortunately) being chronically late for meetings.

But sadly, France's head of state also has a reputation for unintentionally (well, you would hope so) appearing to make a complete and utter pillock of himself - and that's putting it politely - not only with what he says (he masters the slip-of-the-tongue) but how he looks.

The rain fell on Hollande's parade (quite literally) from the very beginning (and has continued to do so with alarming frequency) in terms of his image when he got a real soaking just after being sworn in as president.

In fact, "Rain man" as Hollande has sometimes been unkindly termed, has become something of a standing joke within the media as bad weather just seems to have followed the French president from one official function to another (with the occasional exception of course).

Then there was the time, just a couple of months after being elected, during a state visit to London in July 2012 when Hollande appeared "dwarfed" by a Coldstream Guard (complete with the traditional bearskin of course) while inspecting the Guard of Honour.

A photo which amused many.

And few will forget the unfortunate snap taken by Agence France Presse during Hollande's visit to a school in Denain in northern France in September 2013 which had all the hallmarks of a "gormless grin" with Hollande seeming to "gurn".

You can see all those (and more) by searching through Twitter posts as every one of them quickly became the object of ridicule on the social network.

Just as Hollande's latest "plonker" PR (disaster) picture has.

This time it had him swaddled in a traditional Kazakh fur hat and coat as he posed with the country's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during a meeting in Astana last week.

Aie, aie, aie!

What was Hollande thinking of?

François Hollande and Nursultan Nazarbayev (screenshot - i>Télé report)

Where was his communications team? Apparently absent or at least unable to intervene.

But even without them, did he have to make himself look like a complete buffoon?

Yes, it would seem. Hollande had little or no choice and was just doing as previous leaders (such as Barak Obama) had done before him.

Plus, the photograph was taken by Nazarbayev's official photographer and posted on the Kazakh press service's Instagram account before being withdrawn.

Too late. The anger and embarrassment at the Elysée palace was accompanied by another round of online jokes as once again, Hollande became an international laughing stock.

Great PR for the French president and for the country.

François Hollande - a Gangsta rapping French president in the making?

François Hollande's speeches could be about to become more...er...interesting.

At least if one of Hollande's newly-appointed speechwriters lives up to his past reputation.

You see, Pierre-Yves Bocquet who is, predictably perhaps, an énarque - a graduate of the prestigious École nationale d'administration - and has been a high-ranking civil servant at the Elysée palace ever since Hollande was elected has another speciality.

Or maybe that should be "specialty" given his particular area of interest.

Because under the pseudonym "Pierre Evil", the 40-year-old has been leading something of a double life...as a music journalist, specialising in American Gangsta rap.

As such, Bocquet/Evil has produced a documentary "Black Music – Des chaînes de fer aux chaînes en or" with Marc-Aurèle Vecchione in 2008 for the Franco-German TV network, Arte.

And he has written two books; "Gangsta rap" in 2005 currently unavailable on Amazon.fr, but maybe that'll change now and the soon-to-be published "Detroit Sampler".




A fellow music journalist, Fred Hanak, describes Bocquet/Evil, who is apparently a fan of the hip hop duo Dead Prez (hmmmn) as "among the best rap reviewers in France".

So out with Hollande's somewhat bumbling and hesitant style so easily lampooned in Les Guignols de l'info on Canal + every weekday evening (even if they also have him "re-interpreting" some of the most popular songs around - see the video)

And in with the hip expletives delivered with a "flow" that'll appeal to the younger generation Hollande courted so much during his presidential election campaign?

Unlikely, as Bocquet says he'll "put on hold his private writing" and besides, "the only person who actually writes François Hollande's speeches is François Hollande. My role will just to be to 'prepare' them."

Shame.