French weekly magazines review

The French weeklies are dominated by President François Hollande’s growing woes and a political storm resulting from the judicial investigation of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

The press consecrated what is now certain to be Hollande’s annus horribilis. French unemployment crossed the three million mark, with an extra one million jobless recorded during the last five years, and 600 billion in additional debt. That sent the president’s opinion rating crashing to 22 per cent barely 10 months after his coming to office.

“Debacle” screams L’Express in its cover story.

According to the right-wing magazine the president has gambled big and lost, postponing economic growth and crucial reforms, his ministers overwhelmed by the challenges of their office.

For L’Express spring will bring no warmth to Hollande, due to 10 months of political flip-flopping and because he has strayed from his manifesto commitments and because his agenda for France was simply unrealistic.

This was also the week Hollande lost one of his most dependable aides, Jérôme Cahuzac, the budget minister. He quit after he was placed under investigation by a judge for allegedly having owned a secret account in a Swiss bank.

Le Nouvel Observateur investigates Cahuzac's "double life". He was one of the most respected members of the Socialist government. But the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reports that Hollande didn’t even bother to meet him, ordering his departure by a simple phone call.

Le Canard Enchaîné also comments about last weekend’s anti-gay-marriage demo in Paris which turned violent.

Le Canard says the success of the protest coupled with the media coverage of the incidents has opened a political boulevard for the right-wing opposition. But it stresses that the conduct of ultra-right groups has shed light on the radical agenda pursued and exposes divisions that have broken out among enemies of gay marriage.

Le Point believes the political atmosphere isn’t good for French morale. How could it be otherwise, wonders the weekly, at a time when the president’s popularity has taken a nosedive and when the opposition’s prodigal son Nicolas Sarkozy is battling to save his political career. He has been placed under formal judicial investigation for alleged financial abuse of the country's richest woman, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Le Canard Enchaîné gives a very spicy account of the six-hour confrontation in Bordeaux between Sarkozy and judge Jean-Michel Gentil who is in charge of the case. It was an icy face-to-face encounter according to Le Point and L’Express concludes that Gentil wants  Sarkozy’s scalp.

The right-wing magazine is following the line taken by the ex-president’s cronies, who have launched a scathing attack on the judge's character. L’Express warns that, while Sarkozy’s friends believe the hardest part of the ordeal is well behind them, the battle is far from over.

Marianne carries a frail-looking Sarkozy on its cover page, the caption “Pay day”. The left-wing journal claims he lied about this scandal and others, including the allegations that Libya's former dictator, Moamer Kadhafi, helped finance his 2007 presidential election campaign.

It’s a time bomb, according to Marianne.