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French President Francois Hollande faced the press for nearly three hours on Tuesday but refused to answer questions about reports of an affair with an actress. Hollande said only that he and his partner, France’s official First Lady Valerie Trierweiler, were going through a “difficult and painful period.” He insisted, “I have one principle, and that is private matters should be dealt with privately.” Trierweiler was admitted to hospital, reportedly suffering from shock and depression, after a celebrity magazine reported Friday on Hollande’s alleged trysts with actress Julie Gayet. The magazine Closer published several photographs of a man on the back of a scooter, said to be the president on his way to visit the actress at a borrowed apartment, where he reportedly spent the night. Asked how Trierweiler was doing, Hollande’s reply was frosty. “She’s resting. That’s all I will say,” he said. In his opening remarks, which lasted 40 minutes and covered a wide range of subjects, Hollande unveiled plans to guarantee “France’s place in the world.” He pledged to boost employment and economic growth, as well as to make nearly $89 billion in cuts to public spending by 2017. He said he would reduce taxes and red tape for French companies in return for promises that they would create more jobs, especially for the young. And he said he would introduce measures to save money by cutting the “excess and abuse” in the country’s health system. | 
