Copies des articles cités le 17 juin 06
Future uncertain after investor insists on removing veteran of 1968 student revolt
Angelique Chrisafis in
Guardian
It prides itself on being
But the French newspaper Libération plunged into its own existential crisis yesterday after the editor was asked to leave, and the paper which once boasted that it cared nothing about money found its future on the line in a row over funds.
Serge July, 63, a Sorbonne-educated, one-time Maoist revolutionary and veteran of France's 1968 student rebellion, called journalists together at 10am after the paper's daily news conference. The editor, who older colleagues call "the father", announced that he had been asked to leave by the newspaper's major shareholder, Edouard de Rothschild, who would not pump any more money into the ailing title while July still held the reins.
Journalists on the paper known simply as Libé described it as the end of an era and said the future of the title needed to be secured in a slumping print market.
July told his staff that "if my departure can lead to the paper receiving more financing ... I will not stand in the way". His announcement comes after months of financial strife at
Libé was launched by radicals in 1973 and claimed to be "voice of the people", breaking with the bourgeoisie and running irreverent headlines. When the film star Jean Gabin died in 1978, it carried the headline: "Gabin is dead, [President] Giscard is in the shit, the
A founding manifesto of Libération was to "depend on the people, not on advertisers or banks. It became the voice of its generation, but as that aged, so did its readership. Libé was accused by media analysts of failing to attract readers beyond its core market aged between 45 and 55, middle class, liberal and, for a nation that loves acronyms, "bobo" which stands for "bourgeois bohème". Soon there were rumours that the paper was in difficulty.
Last year Libération was forced to accept a €20m cash injection from an unlikely partner, Edouard de Rothschild, a scion of the banking family. A
Mr Rothschild is said to have gone head to head with July in an angry exchange in a
François Wenz-Dumas, who represents the French journalists' union at Libération, told Agence France Presse that July had announced his departure "under pressure". He added that staff were "very worried" that this could have "serious consequences for the paper".
There were fears that the paper's big-name journalists such as Florence Aubenas, who was kidnapped in Iraq last year, would leave if July left, but a source at the newspaper said there had been no signs of a mass walk-out - so far.
Staff met to discuss their response yesterday evening and to decide what to run on the newspaper's front page tomorrow, while July was said to still be at his desk.
"There is an overriding mood of sadness here," one Libération journalist said. "Even if some criticised the way the newspaper was managed, everyone is now wondering about the paper's future. Serge July is the newspaper and the newspaper is Serge July. This feels like the death of something, the death of Libération as we know it."
Staff were concerned that the paper would become a business enterprise above all else, but the source said: "I don't think the editorial line will change. I don't think Libé would go rightwing. It wouldn't make sense. We have a core readership that is going down but that readership still exists."
Dominique Nora, a former journalist, told the website of the weekly Nouvel Observateur that this was "the end of an era". But one of Libération's former senior journalists Jean-Marcel Bouguereau said the paper's heyday had long waned. "One word springs to mind and that's 'mess'," he said.
Bernard Lallement, who co-founded Libération with July, said the paper had "always hated money" but now "could not escape economic reality".
Those tipped to take over as editor included a former Le Monde editor, Edwy Plenel, who denied yesterday he had been approached.
Jean-Louis Missika, a media analyst and commentator, told the Guardian the choice now for Mr Rothschild was to either invest money in rebuilding Libé as a great newspaper, "which carries a risk", or invest in its "excellent" website, which attracted a growing number young readers during the recent student protests against employment reform.
July was still considering his position last night. Several months ago, when asked by the rival daily Le Monde if he had considered standing down after decades at the helm, he offered a riposte worthy of Sartre himself: "Eternity is boring, particularly towards the end."
Backstory
The circulation of all nine French national newspapers is 1.4m, compared with around 12m for
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
End of an era as founder quits flagging 'Libération'
By John Lichfield
Published:
After 33 years, revolution from an unlikely source has come to a newspaper born of revolution. Serge July, the founder-head of the centre-left French daily, Libération, has been asked to leave by its chief shareholder, Edouard de Rothschild, a son of one of the world's most prominent capitalist families.
On the front page of yesterday's newspaper, journalists warned M. Rothschild not to tamper with Libération's "moral contract" to defend editorial freedom and "its own view of society". The journalists' statement tacitly accepted, however, that M. July, 63, would be forced to leave the newspaper that he founded in 1973 with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. He is expected to quit his post as président-directeur général in the next few days, bringing one of the longest and most influential media careers in
M. July was a partially reformed Maoist at the time that Libération was founded. The newspaper was intended to preserve the flame of
Circulation and advertising have lurched downwards since M. Rothschild - with M. July's enthusiastic support - became the principal shareholder last year. In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien yesterday, M. Rothschild, 48, said Libération was "close to bankruptcy". After investing €20m (£14m), he indicated that he was prepared to give Libération up to another €5m - but only if M. July, and Louis Dreyfus, its director general, stood aside.
There is much alarm within the newspaper but M. Rothschild has repeatedly said that Libération - if it is to survive at all - must remain left of centre and free of spirit. He believes that the title must be given a new start under new management if it is to recapture its appeal to younger readers. This might mean the newspaper would have to move further left, to reflect the radical, anti-market, anti-globalisation and anti-European views of many young people in
Libération was divided during the EU referendum campaign last year. Older journalists supported the proposed European constitution. Younger staff members campaigned, unsuccessfully, for the newspaper to support the "no" camp.
A former executive at the newspaper said M. Rothschild did not want to influence the daily editorial decisions of the newspaper. But he did want to have a say on financial decisions and long-term strategy. "So far, all that he has seen is €20m go up in smoke," the executive said. Other French media commentators suggested that M. Rothschild - regarded as a "leftist" by other members of his family - was naïve to think that Libération could be rescued without large injections of cash.
The newspaper's problems reflect a wider crisis in the French paid-for national newspaper market, which has lost almost 18 per cent of its circulation in the past 10 years. Libération, lacking the resources of a larger group, has been especially hard hit by the launch of several free newspapers aimed at the young. Its daily circulation of 171,000 in 2000 fell to 136,945 last year and is said to have fallen another 5 per cent since then. Advertising revenue has fallen even more steeply. Despite the axing of 52 editorial posts, Libération is now losing more money than when M. Rothschild bought 38.8 per cent of the capital last year.
After 33 years, revolution from an unlikely source has come to a newspaper born of revolution. Serge July, the founder-head of the centre-left French daily, Libération, has been asked to leave by its chief shareholder, Edouard de Rothschild, a son of one of the world's most prominent capitalist families.
On the front page of yesterday's newspaper, journalists warned M. Rothschild not to tamper with Libération's "moral contract" to defend editorial freedom and "its own view of society". The journalists' statement tacitly accepted, however, that M. July, 63, would be forced to leave the newspaper that he founded in 1973 with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. He is expected to quit his post as président-directeur général in the next few days, bringing one of the longest and most influential media careers in
M. July was a partially reformed Maoist at the time that Libération was founded. The newspaper was intended to preserve the flame of
Circulation and advertising have lurched downwards since M. Rothschild - with M. July's enthusiastic support - became the principal shareholder last year. In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien yesterday, M. Rothschild, 48, said Libération was "close to bankruptcy". After investing €20m (£14m), he indicated that he was prepared to give Libération up to another €5m - but only if M. July, and Louis Dreyfus, its director general, stood aside.
There is much alarm within the newspaper but M. Rothschild has repeatedly said that Libération - if it is to survive at all - must remain left of centre and free of spirit. He believes that the title must be given a new start under new management if it is to recapture its appeal to younger readers. This might mean the newspaper would have to move further left, to reflect the radical, anti-market, anti-globalisation and anti-European views of many young people in
Libération was divided during the EU referendum campaign last year. Older journalists supported the proposed European constitution. Younger staff members campaigned, unsuccessfully, for the newspaper to support the "no" camp.
A former executive at the newspaper said M. Rothschild did not want to influence the daily editorial decisions of the newspaper. But he did want to have a say on financial decisions and long-term strategy. "So far, all that he has seen is €20m go up in smoke," the executive said. Other French media commentators suggested that M. Rothschild - regarded as a "leftist" by other members of his family - was naïve to think that Libération could be rescued without large injections of cash.
The newspaper's problems reflect a wider crisis in the French paid-for national newspaper market, which has lost almost 18 per cent of its circulation in the past 10 years. Libération, lacking the resources of a larger group, has been especially hard hit by the launch of several free newspapers aimed at the young. Its daily circulation of 171,000 in 2000 fell to 136,945 last year and is said to have fallen another 5 per cent since then. Advertising revenue has fallen even more steeply. Despite the axing of 52 editorial posts, Libération is now losing more money than when M. Rothschild bought 38.8 per cent of the capital last year.
Publisher of French leftwing daily ‘told to quit’
>By Adam Jones in
>Published:
>>
The unlikely alliance between Edouard de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty, and
Founded in 1973 by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Mr July and other radicals in a continuation of the idealism that fuelled the famous student protests five years previously, Libération has in recent years struggled with declining sales in a tough French newspaper market that has also hurt its rivals.
The circulation of the title dipped from an average of more than 174,000 copies in 2001 to fewer than 145,000 last year. The arrival of free daily newspapers such as 20 Minutes has made the market more crowded.
Earlier this month, Vincent Bolloré, the Breton financier who is the leading shareholder in the Havas marketing services group, increased the pressure on traditional dailies by launching a free afternoon paper called Direct Soir.
Mr de Rothschild, who as well as being a financier is also president of France’s horse-racing association, bought a stake of nearly 39 per cent in the loss-making Libération last year. However, a plan to cut jobs prompted a strike last November.
On Tuesday, Libération’s website reported Mr July as saying that Mr de Rothschild had asked for his resignation as well as that of Louis Dreyfus, the paper’s managing director.
Mr July was quoted as saying he would be willing to leave if his departure cleared the way for the refinancing of the newspaper by Mr de Rothschild. However, he denied that he had already quit.
A group representing Libération journalists on Tuesday issued a statement saying that Mr July was the “guarantee of our editorial independence”, protecting the paper from “every intrusion, every influence that could have put in danger its integrity and values”.
Shareholders did not have the right to dictate editorial policy, it said, adding that the need to stabilise the paper’s finances must not put its values in danger.
The employee body that is Libération’s second-biggest shareholder told AFP news service that the newspaper was at a turning-point – and that Mr de Rothschild held the key.
On Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for Libération said that there would be a meeting later in the day but declined to comment further on the matter.
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The Times
Voice of the Sixties generation faces last rites after news slump
By Charles Bremner
THE future of Libération, the daily bible of France’s Sixties generation, hangs in the balance after its main shareholder declared that the newspaper was near bankruptcy and called on its founding chief executive to resign.
The upheaval at Libération, which was founded in 1973 by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July, who is still its boss, is part of a slump affecting all of the big titles.
The French, never big newspaper readers, have been turning away from a press that has lost their trust and responded slowly to change.
Libération was loved by the post-1968 generation for its impertinent voice and pioneering design, but it has fallen into grumpy middle age. M July’s departure after 33 years is deemed certain since he told staff on Tuesday that Edouard de Rothschild, a member of the banking family who came to the paper’s rescue last year, refused to invest more unless he stood down as chief executive.
“If my departure can help the refinancing of the newspaper, I will not be an obstacle,” said the 63-year-old one-time Maoist who became a pillar of the Paris Establishment. M de Rothschild told Le Parisien that Libération was very close to filing for bankruptcy.
Staff at Libération, who still have an editorial veto over management decisions, published a front-page pledge to resist interference by any shareholder.
They noted that “for 33 years, Serge July has been the guarantor of our editorial independence” but they stopped short of supporting him. This reflected the waning authority of the once-charismatic chief since Libération entered decline almost a decade ago.
Some staff disowned M July last year after he published an article deploring the “no” vote in
M de Rothschild, whose arrival as a saviour appalled Libération’s old leftist loyalists, blames M July for mismanagement. His £16 million investment had been used yet the newspaper was still leaking money, he said.
Libération’s plight is seen as evidence that no quality daily can survive in
The opposition Socialist party called the imminent departure of M July the end of an era and pressed for the state to increase the £120 million a year subsidies newspapers receive.
But there is evidence
THE DAILIES
Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui 498,000 (2005 circulation) Mid-market tabloid, healthy condition
L’Equipe 341,000 sports daily, thriving
Le Figaro 325,300 Pro-government, financially fragile
Le Monde 320,000 Centre-left, financially troubled; relaunched
Libération 137,000
Other dailies include:
Les Echos (business) 116,500 La Croix (Catholic) 96,000
La Tribune (business) 80,000 L’Humanité (Communist) 52,000
France Soir 50,600 former mass-circulation tabloid until downmarket relaunch
20 Minutes (free) 661,000
Métro (free) 460,000
The struggle for Libération
Lib
[Today's Libé, with the staff's defiant declaration on page one -- alongside a typical front on José Bové, the anti-globalising sheep farmer]
As a student and young journalist in
July, 63, is now on the verge of departure after Edouard de Rothschild, a member of the banking family, said that he would invest no more money in the loss-making paper unless the boss resigned. De Rothschild told le Parisien today that Libération was on the verge of bankruptcy.
A Libé-loving time-traveller from, say, 1985, would wonder if the world had gone mad. A Rothschild -- the ultimate capitalist -- firing the one-time Maoist, founding hero of
Libération reached this point because it failed to move with the times. July entered the gauche-caviar establishment and the newspaper grew middle-aged and a little conservative along with all those post-1968 types who were its audience. When the paper was in dire financial straits early last year, Rothschild came to the rescue with 20 million euros. This bought him a 39 percent share of the paper which had once been run as a workers' commune.
July seems to have given up the struggle. "If my departure can help the refinancing of the newspaper, I will not be an obstacle," he said. Staff, who still have a veto over the appointment of editors, published a front-page pledge to resist interference by any shareholder, but they gave only a half-hearted defence of Chairman Serge. "For 33 years, Serge July has been the guarantor of our editorial independence" they said, without suggesting that he stay on. This reflected the waning authority of the once-charismatic chief since Libération entered decline almost a decade ago. Some staff disowned July a year ago after he published a commentary deploring the "no" vote in the referendum on the European Constitution. His sin was to dismiss the "no" campaign as populist, small-minded and damaging to
Last November; staff staged a four-day strike after nearly 60 of the 330 employees were offered redundancy as part of a restructuring plan. Rothschild blames July for mismanagement. All 20 million euros of his investment had been used up yet the newspaper, which is struggling to sell a mere 135,000 copies a day, is still leaking a million a month, he says. .
Libé's agony is part of a slump that has hit all of
The plight of Libération is seen as evidence that no quality daily can survive without big injections of corporate money -- and ego. Libération journalists are worried that de Rothschild's influence spells the end of their ideal of freedom from the pressures of advertisers and capitalists.
All three of the daily "qualities" -- Le Figaro, Libération and Le Monde -- have run into trouble and acquired new dominant share-holders over the past three years. In 2004, Serge Dassault, the aerospace and defence mogul and friend of President Chirac, bought out le Figaro; The newspaper is performing better after a relaunch, but staff complain of a lack of independence. Early last year, Lagardère, the media and defence conglomerate invested 25 million euros in
Yet there is evidence that
The free circulation is double that of Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui, which, at half a million is the most successful paid daily. That title's success in recent years is due to a switch to a lively, popular style, more akin to a British mid-market newspaper than the more solemn voice of French papers.
Failure to move with the times has almost killed France Soir, a newspaper like
Posted by Charles Bremner on
REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial)
Icarus Inc.
827 words
The Wall Street Journal
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With the Concorde now mothballed or in museums, Airbus is fast becoming the current airborne testament to the hubris of state-led industrial policy in
The meltdown in the stock price of its parent company this week was dramatic, but no surprise. Markets don't like bad news, and Airbus has produced bushels of late. Wednesday's 26% drop, which shaved $6.3 billion from the market value of European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. before rebounding some yesterday, came a day after Airbus announced that its superjumbo A380 won't be produced on schedule through 2010. Delays have plagued this marquee project.
Airlines are unhappy with Airbus's proposed A350, the competitor to Boeing's surprisingly popular 787 "Dreamliner," forcing the Europeans back to the drawing board, at significant cost. The EU taxpayer may, once again, pick up a big part of the bill through launch aid and other handouts, all for the glory of this "pan-European flagship." Any more state aid is likely to lead to another complaint against Airbus before the World Trade Organization in
The troubles on the factory floor may not be as serious a problem down the road as the company's unwieldy -- and, on current evidence, unworkable -- management structure. Airbus was born of a French, German, British and Spanish government initiative. Its political patrons have kept their noses in the business since. No prize for guessing who does so more than any other. Last year President Jacques Chirac tried to install Airbus boss Noel Forgeard, who happens to be French, into the top job at EADS. The messy fight ended when a German executive was named to share the CEO job with him. Then this year EADS was pulled into
A fair conclusion, reached by the markets this week, is that an executive suite preoccupied with political mumbo-jumbo took its eyes off the superjumbo. With so much riding on the A380, the production glitches are a stunning indictment of management. The delays in delivering the plane will cost EADS $2.5 billion in 2007-2010. EADS yesterday launched a probe into the A380 program. The cost in terms of fines, canceled orders and lost future orders adds to the bill. The blow to prestige is far bigger.
It is instructive to note that Boeing itself was, only a few years ago, in a similar pickle. Two CEOs lost their jobs and a senior executive landed in jail, but Boeing got through painful restructuring, including deep job cuts, and made hard decisions (like refusing to fight Airbus for the A380 market) knowing that money was finite. Its updated product line is led by the "Dreamliner." Suddenly, Boeing is poised to dominate its market for years to come.
In its present guise Airbus, or EADS, looks ill-disposed to take this road. The dual management structure -- in fact an improvement on the previous consortium model -- makes the company, by nature, less flexible. So do its political links. State treasuries have been eager to build toys that boost national egos, to the tune of $15 billion in taxpayer handouts over the past three decades. The leaders of
No wonder that the big industrial shareholders are running for the doors. British Aerospace was right in the middle of negotiating to sell its 20% stake in Airbus back to EADS when the share price nosedived.
Tellingly, Airbus's fall from grace is portrayed as a blow to European pride rather than to the company's shareholders and millions of air travelers, who will suffer directly. This is the real trans-Atlantic gap. Americans tend to judge corporations by the bottom line, not the national flag. Europeans relate to big companies as to their World Cup teams. In this they get plenty of encouragement from politicians, in particular the Gallic variety, who think business is their business.
With a duopoly in aircraft manufacturing, we all benefit from having two healthy, competitive producers. Cut free from subsidies and politics, Airbus would be free to behave like a normal company. It is not that today.
The Sego and Sarko Show
863 words
The Wall Street Journal
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(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
In the past 12 months,
Now, to the surprise of people who had written off the coming year as well, French politics is suddenly exciting again. That's thanks to the two figures who are in good positions, on their respective wings of the country's politics, to contest next year's presidential elections. Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy trade barbs with each other but, more intriguingly, both are campaigning just as much against the old ways. Though the election is still a year off,
On the right is Mr. Sarkozy, minister of the interior and leader of the center-right UMP party. Until earlier this year Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was Jacques Chirac's presumed heir. But then Mr. de Villepin drove through the "First Employment Contract," which which would have loosened up the job market. Millions of students and union members forced his embarrassing retreat this spring. Weeks later the "Clearstream affair" broke open, with Mr. de Villepin accused of trying to frame Mr. Sarkozy for corruption. The Prime Minister denies the charge, but his poll ratings have sunk like a stone. His rival, Mr. Sarkozy, has the field on the center-right all to himself, though he must worry about the extremist fringe led by old stalwart Jean-Marie Le Pen.
No one can honestly claim to know what Mr. Sarkozy might do in power. As minister of interior and finance, he has veered from economic intervention and defense of the EU's farm subsidies, to as forceful free-market rhetoric as one hears in
In addition to his acidic tongue, Mr. Sarkozy's background stands him apart. He's of Hungarian, Greek and Jewish extraction. And unlike a chunk of the French establishment, on the right and the left, Mr. Sarkozy didn't train at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the elite finishing school. His ideas, and way of presenting them, make him seem like an outsider, no matter that he's been active in French politics since his early 20s and is the No. 2 figure in the current government.
An anti-establishment image burnishes Ms. Royal's appeal as well, though at first blush she seems anything but. She graduated from ENA, and became a policy aide to President Francois Mitterrand before being elected as a Socialist national assembly member and later a district president. Her partner and father of their four children is Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande, who is himself a candidate for the party's presidential nomination.
But as an unwed mother who solicits citizens' views via a Web site and announced her candidacy in the glossy magazine Paris Match, she is seen as positively audacious. Ms. Royal outraged the grandees of her own party by courting the public without their blessing. More important, though, she has dared to challenge the shibboleths of
Though she is way ahead of any Socialist in the polls, Ms. Royal must gain the nomination, no sure thing. (Mr. Sarkozy is almost a shoo-in, considering his hold on the UMP.) Even if she is squashed by the party "elephants," her early campaigning is having a salutary effect. This week the left-wing magazine Marianne declared that "the old PS is in its death throes. A new Socialist Party is being born." That's good news, and bodes well for some fresh thinking about the effect of
Both Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Royal have been criticized for cynically playing to the media and doing whatever it takes to get elected -- in short, for being politicians. Whether either has a vision beyond Election Day is unclear. But for now they are enlivening French politics by forcing discussions of racism, immigration, crime and unemployment -- topics that voters are concerned about and that the current government has been unable to address to their satisfaction. That's the first good news out of
How the 'Socialist in Stilettos' became the sixth sexiest woman in the world
(Filed:
She's 52, a mother of four, and possibly the next president of
In
Segolene Royal
Sex and power: Ségolène Royal
Ségo, as we call her in
When I met her recently in her office at the National Assembly in
Ségo is not someone who goes far without a lip-gloss. And now it looks like she may be going very far, perhaps all the way to the
She is not just a shrewd political operator though, she also has a French woman's unique way of using her femininity. She arrived at our meeting in a grey fitted suit with a cream silk shirt and a bright yellow silk scarf designed to cut a swathe through a National Assembly dominated by elderly and grey-suited men. She looked fabulous. Her nails and shoulder length dark hair are immaculate. Her skin is flawless, her smile bright. The secret of her glowing appearance, she told me, is "sleep".
I asked her how she has managed to juggle a successful career with having four children. "Now that they are a bit bigger, they look after each other," she said. "I think that's one of the advantages of having so many."
At 52, Ségolène looks more like the editor of a fashion magazine than a politician. She makes no apologies for taking care of her appearance. "I represent a region," she says. "I can't just put on jeans and running shoes. I have to be well presented at all times."
There is something undeniably sexy about a woman in power and Ségolène embodies it. We may not agree with President Mitterand's assertion that Margaret Thatcher had ''the mouth of Marilyn Monroe'' but some of her cabinet were certainly in thrall to her.
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher had 'the mouth of Marilyn Monroe'
Consider other women who seem to get better looking and sexier as their political careers have flourished. Hilary Clinton, for example. How dowdy was she at the start? It's always amazed me that Bill ever noticed her in the first place.
Now, aged 58 and Senator for
At 51,
I can't understand why political parties don't make more of women. Or maybe it's the women who don't make more of politics. Ségolène is out to change all that in
When she announced to Paris Match magazine late last year that she was considering running for the presidency, few took her seriously. No one could have predicted what an explosive development this would prove to be in a French political scene that was static but now looks electric.
Sex symbol or saviour of
Her forthright views are, predictably, leading to her being dubbed "
As well as Blair, Ségo is also hoping to copy Bill Clinton in his ''triangulation'' method; fitting in between the Left and the Right. The parallels with Clinton and Blair don't end there. This is a woman who is very aware of the power of the media. In the last month she has graced the cover of countless magazines, including Elle and Madame Figaro. She is exploding the myth of the traditional French woman as either mistress or mother. She is not only tapping on the glass ceiling but threatening to blast her way through it.
Her male socialist colleagues don't like it a bit. This is ironic, because her partner, and father of her four children, Francois Hollande, is leader of the Partie Socialiste and may stand as a candidate next year alongside Ségo. On hearing about her political ambitions, Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, sneered: "Who will look after the children?"
Powerful men have always been sexy but powerful women are still something of a novelty. Now, even
# Helena Frith Powell's 'More France Please, We're British', is published by
8 May 2006[News]: Sarko v Ségo and a battle royale
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The Royal effect
Posted by Colin Randall at 12 Jun 06
Tags:
Is the presidency of
Segolene Royal
Ségolène Royal
We are still 11 months from the election to replace Jacques Chirac who, though he has not yet said as much, is surely in the last year of his larger-than-life career in French politics.
Plenty of twists and turns lie ahead, even before we know for certain that Sarko will represent the centre-Right while Ségolène flies a not-very-red flag for the socialists.
Perhaps we should read very little into the latest poll, carried out among readers of the French edition of the men’s magazine FHM. It placed Ségolène sixth, ahead of countless beauties including Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Lopez and Monica Bellucci, in a parade of the world’s sexiest women.
Ségolène, at 52 the mother of four children, is undeniably very attractive, and, if the French sociologist Georges Chetochine is right, perfectly content to exploit her physical charms.
The more conventional polls have also put her ahead of Sarkozy in recent weeks, as well as streets ahead of assorted “disgusteds of rue de Solférino” - the so-called elephants of the socialist opposition who resent and envy her popularity.
They complain that Ségolène is not the right candidate – the speaker is generally trying to impress on the public that he, on the other hand, IS the right candidate.
It is, incidentally, always a he. And some of these men, or their supporters, have made some unedifyingly sexist comments in their attempts to put Ségolène down. FHM’s beauty contest will have suited them, and their prejudices, down to the ground.
To objective observers, the trouble with Mme Royal has been, until lately, that no one really knew what she stood for, beyond some fairly vague concept of traditional values (against pornography, for example, and for disciplined family life).
Now the complaint among some critics is neatly summarised by Le Canard Enchainé: we reproached her before for having no ideas, now she has too many.
What Ségolène had done was to drag the rug from beneath Sarko’s feet when she reacted to renewed outbreaks of trouble on a few estates by calling for a battery of “tough on crime” measures.
Sounding rather like a modern-day version of hang ‘em and flog ‘em Tories, she talked of wanting military training for unruly teenagers guilty of just one offence, and compulsory schooling and child benefit curbs for their parents.
As Sarko offered her a mischievous welcome to his ideological territory, the elephants all but stampeded. Even the less imposing member of the Royal family – François Hollande, father of her four children and leader of the party – dismissed the idea of military service.
But Ségolène knew what she was doing. Her words will have struck a chord with socialist voters who are no less worried than conservatives about rampant delinquency. If they didn’t punish her in the polls for expressing qualified admiration for Tony Blair, they will not mind her wanting to knock young hoodlums’ heads together.
An excellent cartoon in the Journal du Dimanche showed her hammering a football with her right foot while an anxious Sarko missed his tackle and asked: “How does she do that, shoot with the right and score with the Left?”
Which leaves Sarko having to think very carefully about how to counter “l’effet Royal”, a phenomenon that has grown dramatically in the past months, fuelled by her exploitation of the mass media, from Paris Match to TF1, and careful attention to the new media via a much-read blog.
Le Figaro judged today that natural Sarkozy supporters (and others on the government benches) are torn between irony and more than a flicker of concern.
While some see her as more of a threat to the Left than to the Right or “all image, no substance”, others accept that she is – as one MP put it - “much more intelligent, structured and robust that we were led to believe”.
I even heard Sarko trotting out the kind of thoughts I’d associate more with a Left-of- centre opposition leader than a conservative interior minister when discussing a lack of sanctions against those at the heart of the Outreau child abuse case scandal.
Assuming that Sarko and Ségolène are chosen by their respective camps a few months from now, I still feel he has the potential to overtake her. But that conviction, strong a month or so ago, is beginning to weaken.
And if Sarko is moving towards her in an attempt to retrieve ground lost in the ratings as she moves towards him, where will we end up? With two broadly centrist main candidates and the rantings of
Never forget that Jean-Marie Le Pen managed to capture five-and-a-half million French votes against Chirac.
Posted by Colin Randall at 12 Jun 06
The shutters come down on
Jason Burke in
Observer
They are as French as demonstrations, croissants and good railways; an essential part of any British tourist's holiday and of the social and cultural life of the nation - and they are rapidly disappearing.
'The typical French cafe is disappearing,' said Elisabeth Lenanen, a Synhorcat official. 'Especially in the provinces there is a process of bistro desertification. There are whole swaths of the country without a bistro in sight.'
A coalition of unions representing 'patrons' has just launched a new campaign, 'Save Our Bistros'. Cyril Pereira, a spokesman, said that the problems had been caused by a combination of different factors.
First, there is the famous French bureaucracy; then there are the recent campaigns against drink-driving which have brought down
'We have nothing at all against such campaigns,'
Another problem is strict gaming regulation which restricts pinball, fruit machines and even table football. Finally there are new habits. 'People don't come to a bistro to talk any longer. They use the internet and a screen. Human relations have become virtual,' said
Another major threat, say the bistro owners, is the strong possibility of a new law banning smoking in public places.
One bistro-owner in the trendy Marais quarter of
But at La Brazza, a bistro in the 11th arrondissement, Jimli, the new proprietor, was more optimistic.
He bought the establishment six months ago - largely because of the bookmaker's licence that went with it. Yesterday the bar was full of happy punters drinking and betting on the World Cup and the horses.
'I was going against the general current, but it's a good investment,' Jimli said in between serving cafés crèmes and beer. 'But it was a good decision because this is a gaming cafe. About a third of the revenue comes from the betting. But it is a hard life. It's a hell of a lot of work and the hours are long.'
He was philosophical about the proposed smoking ban, even though a third of La Brazza's revenue comes from tobacco products. 'It's not going to help,' he said. 'But this is the 21st century. You've got to change with the times.'
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
More of the Same is Not Good Enough for
By PETER BERLIN
International Herald Tribune
The sound of boos and whistles once again followed the French team on Tuesday near the end of its 0-0 draw with
Despite the problems it has had scoring goals in recent years,
After the game, Raymond Domenech insisted on viewing the result not as an opportunity missed by
"We knew it would not be easy, but we managed to take two points off a direct rival," Domenech said. "I regret that we did not score when we had the chance but we are always at the mercy of these things.
"It's a draw which had its good moments," Domenech told French television as he left the field. "It wasn't easy but now we have to focus on
"The Swiss are in the past," he continued. "We are used to dropping points at major championships in recent years."
It was a testy match between two familiar foes - the teams met twice in qualifying and also in Euro 2004. There were 36 free kicks - 18 for each team - and eight yellow cards - five of them for the Swiss.
"I found the referee rather fussy," Domenech said. "I did not always understand his decisions. That's new refereeing, I'm told. We have to live with it."
Scoring chances were scarce. Tranquillo Barnetta of
In the final seconds, Louis Saha, a French substitute, cleverly chested the ball back into the path of Vikash Dhorasoo, another replacement. Dhorasoo's low hard shot flew wide. It was the closest
It was not the stuff of musketeering adventure. It was the sort of display that so tries
Even when
Yet Jacquet's World Cup victory has only made things tougher for his successors. Roger Lemerre won Euro 2000, but was axed after the defending world champion's winless and scoreless campaign in
Domenech guided
Of all the qualifiers,
It was unbeaten but drew five of its 10 matches. That included three 0-0 draws in its first three home games in the group, a series certain to irritate fans. That sequence included a 0-0 draw with the Swiss. The teams also drew, 1-1, in the return in
One measure of Domenech's difficulties is a look at the teams for the two qualifying games and Tuesday's game in
Part of the reason was the return of Zinedine Zidane, and his friends Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram, from retirement to save
On Tuesday the old guard was good enough to stifle
Copyright 2006
posted by JB CADIER at 3:48 PM
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