French weekly magazines review

The ‘Correzian humour’ of the former French President Jacques Chirac continues to fuel debate here in France as presidential politics dominates the news. 

Chirac infuriated his successor Nicolas Sarkozy by promising to vote for socialist presidential hopeful François Hollande. According to Le Canard Enchaîné, the whisper in the remote French town set the Elysée on fire during the Pentecost weekend. The tabloid found out that the Elysée’s secretary general Xavier Muscat and budget minister François Baroin spent a lot of time on the phone urging Mrs Bernadette Chirac, to get a retraction from her husband.

The tabloid says Sarkozy is inconsolable and actually complained to friends about all he has done for the Chiracs. He takes credit for the out-of-court settlement that allowed the ruling UMP party to pay for the fictitious jobs contracted by Chirac during his time as mayor of Paris and the recruitment of top Chirac cronies in his government, to the detriment of his own allies.

Sarkozy has identified Chirac’s son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux as the mastermind behind the comment, according to the satirical weekly. The tabloid explains that Salat-Baroux is suspected at the Elysée of riding for Sarkozy’s rival and radical party leader Jean Louis Borloo. Sarkozy grumbled to one visitor about boiling to break the jaw of that idiot. That’s according to Le Canard.

François Hollande is paradoxically not too happy about the Chirac endorsement. Le Nouvel Observateur has been quick to describe it as a jackpot but it looks more like a poisoned apple.  Hollande still has to face Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry in crunch primaries later this year.

François Hollande told campaign aides, he is clapping for the Chiracs but not with both hands. Le Canard Enchaîné explains that party backbenchers in Corrèze have obtained a court order cancelling Mrs Bernadette Chirac’s election as regional councilor, a move Hollande had advised against.

François Hollande is the cover story of L’Express as he continues to fine tune his presidential bid. The right-wing magazine puts up a 10-page dossier on the former Socialist Party secretary, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of his character.

The journal presents this respected professor of economics and political sciences, as a moderate and warm politician who will stand for the middle class and job-creating small businesses. His networks are described as “efficient” and “well-structured” extending beyond his socialist political family.

L’Express notes that François Hollande rides a scooter, as he is eager to show his proximity with ordinary people – and to distance himself from the ostentatious lifestyle of Porsche car lovers like Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The Express however says that his extreme sense of generosity, his reputation as a consensus seeker and the expressed desire to become an ordinary president, don’t make him the favorite candidate of voters looking for a tough and decisive leader. The magazine also diagnosed a credibility problem in Hollande, which hinges on a lack of conviction about key issues, added to his inexperience in international affairs seen as his ‘Achilles heel’

Le Nouvel Observateur takes the pulse of the Greens’ primaries pitting former prosecutor Eva Joly against earth programme producer Nicolas Hulot. The left-leaning magazine has a photograph of the two unlikely bedfellows, with Hulot’s hand wrapped around Joly’s neck. The picture was taken during a rally of the Greens and Europe Ecology alliance here in Paris in May.

The show of camaraderie contrasts unfortunately with the personal attacks that have marred debates between the candidates.The magazine regrets that the French ecologists are facing the spectre of having to choose their presidential candidate from two novices groomed outside the party.

Le Nouvel Observateur wonders whether this is a sign of openness, a lack of confidence in the party’s leadership or simply an appetite for hazardous experimentation.

Le Point examines desperate attempts by President Sarkozy to dissuade his former environment minister Jean Louis Borloo from running against him in the 2012 elections.
The conservative journal point out that Sarkozy has exhausted all the peaceful arguments in his armory to lure Borloo out of his way and it’s turning into a war of nerves.

The president faces the spectre of a first-round elimination from the 2012 race, if Borloo runs. One of Borloo’s aides told Le Point that he has gone too far to turn back noting that his resolve has been reinvigorated by desperate attempts by UMP spin doctors to smear him.

Sarkozy admitted to one friend quoted by the journal that Borloo is about to “spoil everything”, simply because he didn’t get the prime minister’s post which he wanted.

The ruling party is bracing itself for another personality crisis involving UMP chief François Copé and Prime Minister François Fillon. Both are battling to make Paris city hall the launching pad of their presidential bids, come 2017. Le Point and L’Express report that ex-justice minister Rachida Dati, now mayor of the 7th Parisian district, is under pressure to stand down in favor of Fillon.
 

Unfortunately, Dati with Copé’s support, has advised the prime minister to stop dreaming and to go stand in the Sarthe constituency where he belongs.