Léa Salamé is one of the most familiar faces on French television. For the past month, however, she has been absent from the anchor’s seat presenting the evening news on the big public network, France 2.

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At the end of the summer, Salamé announced that she had taken a ‘difficult decision’ to step away from her high-profile programme to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Salamé is romantically involved with politician Raphaël Glucksmann, who on Sunday won the Socialist primaries and is now the party’s official candidate in the French presidential election next spring. Salamé met Glucksmann 11 years ago on the set of a live television show, and today they have a nine-year-old son.

Glucksmann, son of French philosopher André Glucksmann, is not scoring high in election polls. It’s still early days, but he’s trailing far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon and is far behind right-wing Marine Le Pen. No matter, Léa Salamé has walked away from France 2’s evening news so the man in her life can respond to the call of destiny.

Politicians dating and romancing – even marrying – influential television and radio presenters is hardly unique to France. In many countries politicians and journalists socialise, flirt, and sometimes tumble into bed. In France, however, the marriage of politics and journalism is pervasive. Over the past few decades, dozens of cabinet ministers, prime ministers, and even French presidents have formed couples – sometimes ephemeral, sometimes enduring – with female journalists. When François Hollande was elected president in 2012, he was romantically involved with a Paris Match journalist, Valérie Trierweiler. When she moved into the Élysée........

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