For Francois Hollande, it would be fair to say the proverbial has hit the fan this week.

As if allegations the French president had a secret affair with an actress were not enough, several tonnes of horse manure have been dumped at the steps of his nation’s parliament.

Gendarmes apprehended a protestor before he could finish unloading a white articulated lorry full of dung outside Paris’s National Assembly today, witnesses said.

On the side of the truck was daubed a slogan: ‘Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the SixthRepublic.’

The present-day FifthRepublic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president after France lost much of its colonial power after the Second World War.

The pungent demonstration happened today outside the Bourbon Palace, a 16th Century monument next to the river Seine in central Paris which houses France’s lower house of parliament, the equivalent of the House of Commons.

Witnesses said the man was apprehended by police, who have since begun a mass clean-up.

The French magazine Closer published a seven-page report last Friday on Mr Hollande’s alleged affair with the actress Julie Gayet.

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