French weekly magazines review 16 August 2015

This week’s Marianne profiles cronies of the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi who the journal believes have many revelations to make about France. They include Kadhafi’s last prime minister Baghdadi al Mahmoudi, in office from 2006 to 2011, to whom Kadhafi confided his special relationship with ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy as well as the explosive account of the Bulgarian nurses.

DR

The others are Abdullah Senoussi, a brother-in-law to the dictator who was in charge of the Libyan secret services; Abuzaid Dorda, the head of the foreign intelligence; and Saif-al-Islam Kadhafi, the dictator’s second and only surviving son and anointed successor.

According to Marianne all the ex-barons of the former Libyan regime are being held in the al-Hadba maximum security military prison in Tripoli operated by Khaled al Sharif, an ex-Afghan jihadist and former aide to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, now allied to the Islamist brigades which have installed a rival parliament and government in Tripoli parallel to the one recognised by the international community based in Tobruk.

Marianne quotes a lawyer to the ex-former Libyan premier as saying that the Islamists know they are in possession of the “black boxes of the toppled Libyan regime”and want to make that known to everyone. Barrister Mehdi Bouaouaja, who was not allowed to assist his client during his trial, says the warlords now holding sway in Tripoli did allow two French journalists to speak to Baghdadi al Mahmoudi the day after.

Questioned whether Nicolas Sarkozy received any money from Kadhafi, al Mahmoudi said yes. But according to the paper he wasn’t forthcoming when asked what evidence he had to substantiate his claims; he said that this was not the appropriate time to produce it. Marianne says a witness of all the transactions confirmed to its reporters that two payments of 461 million dollars (415 million euros) each were made for the release of Bulgarian nurses who had been accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Le Canard Enchaîné urges its readers not to listen to all the blabla about France being the land of asylum seekers. It argues that while Europe collapses under the weight of immigrants with more that 2,000 boat people dying at sea, the so-called cradle of human rights remains the only European country where the number of asylum seekers fell in 2014.

The figures are down by 5 per cent, according to the satirical weekly. This is while Angela Merkel’s right-wing government is dealing with a 60 per cent rise, with Sweden registering 50 per cent more.

For Le Canard, France’s Socialist-led government granted refugee status during the past year to just 14,905 applicants, representing an approval rate of just 22 per cent of overall applicants. This is in contrast with 47 for Germany, 77 for Sweden, and 39 per cent of applicants already in the United Kingdom. The figures speak for themselves, according to Le Canard.

And speaking of figuresn Le Point takes a telescopic look at what the world will be at the end of the 21st century starting with Europe which it claims will be bearing a wrinkled face come 2100, its population expected to fall from 10 per cent of the world's people to 5.7 per cent in 85 years. This, according to the United Nations, will be while Asia and Africa post 44 and 39 per cent of the world population respectively over the same timeline.

UN experts project that Europe will require 31 million immigrants by 2050 to be able to meet its development needs and 62 million more to maintain its population current levels and compensate for the death surplus. According to the right-wing publication that is likely to give German Chancellor Angela Merkel and National Front leader Marine Le Pen goose bumps.

Le Figaro Magazine argues in its own editorial that it is very easy to be generous with money you don’t have. The right-wing publication wonders how the Socialist government can speak of morality when it is spending on immigrants, clandestine workers, while scaring away the country’s wealthiest workers.

A study by the New World Wealth thinktank shows that 42,000 millionaires were forced to flee the country between 2000 and 2014. The figures represent 40 per cent of the wealthiest French income, a world record according to Le Figaro, which claims that the millions of fortunes leaving go and enrich other countries such as the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and Morocco. Patriotism, it say,s calls instead for policies that attract instead of drive away investors.

Lovers of astrology will like this amazing editorial by the managing editor of L’Express, Christophe Barbier. He carried out an inventory of people born in August and found out Leos include the likes of François Hollande, born on the 12 of August, as well as Prime Minister Manuel Valls; conservative presidential hopeful Alain Juppé who celebrated his 70th birthday Saturday; Jean Luc Melenchon on the 19th; Marine Le Pen on the 6th; and Martine Aubry on the 8th.

Barbier says that these politicians aspiring for their country’s highest office and their acolytes would be flattered to learn that powerful and popular leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are also of the same sign of the zodiac. But the L’Express boss is also quick to point out that Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and Cuba’s Fidel Castro are also Leo. As he puts it, to anyone growing horns, conquering power and making good use of it are two separate and different things.