Sons of Nicolas Sarkozy and Valerie Trierweiler trade insults in Twitter spat

Insults have been traded on anything from football to Trierweiler’s enrolment in a cookery course

Louis Sarkozy and Léonard Trierweiler have attacked each other online over anything from their mothers to Trierweiler’s enrolment in a cookery course (Getty)

The teenage offspring of two leading French political figures have been entertaining and disturbing Twitter with a saga of online insults.

Since July 2014, Louis Sarkozy and Léonard Trierweiler - the sons of former president Nicolas Sarkozy and former 'first girlfriend' Valérie Trierweiler - have attacked each other on anything from their mothers to Trierweiler’s enrolment in a cookery course.

Dubbed 'Le Tweetclash' by the French media, the feud appeared to reach its peak on 21 December after Louis Sarkozy, 17, a boarder at a US military academy in Pennsylvania, tweeted the front cover of a magazine which designated Valérie Trierweiler as one of the most annoying people of 2014, calling her a 'tête à claque' ('pain in the neck').

Trierweiler, also 17, responded with an older magazine cover that branded Nicolas Sarkozy as 'The Thug of the Republic'. "Between a pain in the a--- mother and a thug of a father on the front page, my choice is quickly made," he wrote.

Sarkozy Junior then proceeded to mock Trierweiler for his enrolment at the prestigious Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts in Paris, quipped that he wanted to try his chocolate gateaux one day, writing "I hear that's the only thing your [sic] good at".

'Le Tweetclash' can be traced back to an argument over a game of football in July, when Louis Sarkozy dubbed Brazil’s humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany in the 2014 World Cup "the Brazilian genocide". Trierweiler called out this comment as being in poor taste. After a brief hiatus, the hostilities were rekindled in October.

While much amusement has been had from the spat between the two boys, it has also been viewed by some as an embarrassment for the pair’s respective parents, who seem to be either unconcerned or unsuccessful at ending the online argument.

It has been covered extensively in the French press, with one Le Figaro journalist suggesting that the pair settle their differences in a round of Fifa 2015. One Twitter user advised the "cherished sons of the Élysée" to stop arguing and "go and do your homework".