Copies des articles cités le 8 juillet 06
Zid What a difference a week makes. Until last Wednesday,
Then the old guys beat
Half a million people poured into the Champs Elysées to celebrate the quarter-final victory and the national mood has swung from gloom to a sort of disbelieving joy. The cheering erupted from balconies in my street in the demure 17th arrondissement. Police cars drove by honking their horns with tricolour flags flying from their windows. A couple of cars were torched by youths on the nearby Champs, but otherwise the night was a pure celebration of "black, white and Arab"
A victory would be a dose of medicine that
And no-one will be able to escape the message. Most of the team members are black or of Arab origin, so white
Posted by Charles Bremner on
Sports of The Times
French in the Final, as a Spirit Moves Them
By GEORGE VECSEY
HE is younger than he used to be. He has lost that brooding, tired look of four years ago or even of two weeks ago. The final days of his career are agreeing with Zinédine Zidane, giving him a purpose.
The television caught him bounding out of the runway for the second half of
Contrast this to the weary man who reported for duty in the 2002 World Cup in
Now Zidane is conducting a seminar on how to go out on top. At the age of 34, he is the coolest man on the planet. Yesterday he delivered a textbook example of a penalty kick that, come to think of it, the French national federation could sell to
Head down. No visible emotion. No elbows flapping. No knees knocking. Deliberate but not timid-looking. Just whack the ball into a corner.
In this case, the corner to Zidane's left, giving
After all the prematch jockeying about which team dived the most, the referee, Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay, mostly waved off the blatant dives, sometimes with a glare, sometimes just by turning his back on the posturing.
Not that the lads didn't try. When Figo went down in the vicinity of Patrick
Whoever said there are no hands in soccer? When Cristiano Ronaldo performed a flop in the 29th minute, Domenech made an elaborate diving motion with both hands.
Still, it was a quivering body hitting the ground that led to the French goal. Thierry Henry and
Zidane took it. There was never any doubt.
•When a player is fouled in the penalty area, the real question is why he was loose near the ball in the first place. The answer in this case was that
As France protected its lead, Zidane was the ringmaster of this fast-moving circus, sometimes waving his hand and calling for the ball, other times materializing in the flow, occasionally even rushing back on defense to harass Portugal's offense. After watching Zidane plod through his final days with Real Madrid last season, it was hard to believe this wraith.
He and Figo were once expensive members of the Galacticos, the overpriced, over-age stars that Real Madrid continues to collect. Together they helped win the Champions League in 2002, but then the pair, each a former World Footballer of the Year, retired from international play. Figo was persuaded to return by the national coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, while Zidane was persuaded to come back — either by a spirit or by his very living brother; he has told the tale both ways.
•The two old Galacticos sometimes collided like wayward meteorites yesterday, casting glances at each other. Figo had the hair; Zidane, who has shaved his head to hide the extent of his hair loss, had the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 Euro titles. Once
The extra factor was the French goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, who was wobbly in 1998, wobbly for Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and wobbly again yesterday, juggling balls and deflecting one rocket with a two-handed volleyball return to set up Figo's header high above the crossbar.
The rest of the match consisted of Zidane collecting the ball and distributing it, with stutter steps and back heel passes and deft no-look flicks. When it was over, the old Galacticos sought each other out on the field, first exchanging their captains' arm bands, then exchanging jerseys, after first embracing, bare sweaty chest to bare sweaty chest.
There has been a drop-off in the disgusting ritual of players putting on the sweaty jerseys of their opponents. This time, in a show of respect, Zidane pulled on Figo's maroon jersey before going to the sideline to salute the French fans. They would recognize Zidane even in Figo's jersey. He was the 34-year-old with exactly one more soccer match in his career, but still able to run with the young ones. It's the best way to go out of the World Cup.
E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Times Online July 03, 2006
Zidane in twilight zone
By Matt Hughes
IT IS ONE OF THE TRAGEDIES of life — or should that be death? — that a person’s real value is often only appreciated as they are slipping away. Thank heavens, then, that Zinédine Zidane is taking the few small steps remaining towards achieving immortality.
As they stumbled through the group stage, France’s squad of ageing superstars appeared intent on recreating the twilight of the gods, but Zidane has managed to turn back time. This monkish figure may well be able to live forever. In bewitching
*
If he can somehow conjure up more magic in
The transformation from the frail figure whose legs appeared to have failed him has been simply extraordinary, although Raymond Domenech, the
“You may be surprised, but I am not surprised at all,” Domenech said. “That’s Zidane. We know exactly what he is capable of doing. I think it’s precisely because he is retiring, because he is ending his career, that he is fully focused on the game. He doesn’t have to calculate anything. He can play with freedom and expression because he knows every game could be his last. That is the reason why he is able to play so well.”
The turning point may well have been Zidane’s angry confrontation with Domenech as he was substituted towards the end of his team’s second match, against
Emboldened by knocking out the holders, it has become possible to see France reclaiming their crown, with the equally energised Patrick Vieira pointing to parallels with 1998: a steadily-improving team, the sublime form of Zidane and another chance for their rainbow line-up to embarrass right-wing politicians like Jean-Marie Le Pen who said last week that he would like to see more white players in the team.
“I know few players have ever won two World Cups, but we are capable of it,” Vieira said. “We’ve beaten the favourites, a great side people thought might win the World Cup, which means a lot and confirms that we have the potential to go much further in this tournament. We’re strong and all believe in each other, are working for each other and can achieve great things. We believe more and more in ourselves and are improving every game, like in 1998.”
A beautiful match
By :
Age before beauty? No chance. This
"I don't have the words to express how I feel right now," said
When the French were labouring through the group stages - - needing victory over
Last night they burst back into full light. After laying on the goal for Henry with a deep free-kick, Zidane seemed to grow in stature. His graceful calm spread to his team-mates -and suddenly the whole team was playing with guile.
"We played an attractive game of football," said Thierry Henry, who scored the only goal of the game. "We just kept going and going and going.
"We played the way we knew we could. It was the sort of match you dream of playing in and now to be going to the semi-final, well, it's incredible." After the violence that marred the aftermath of
Every game for Zidane could be his last: he retires from football after this tournament. Thankfully he is playing like he knows it, warding off the threat of an anticlimactic end to one of the great careers. This was a masterful display, a vintage of that velvet touch and astonishing vision. Even Brazilian fans were raised to their feet in rapture by some of Zizou's audacious passes. Time and again he sent Henry and Franck Ribery scampering clear down the flanks, repeatedly looking to exploit the space behind the marauding Cafu and Roberto Carlos. Even the trademark double drag-back was given an outing. "We got the victory we wanted, we just never stopped," Zidane said. "This was a beautiful match".
There were sublime moments of exceptional skill: Zidane killing an awkward looping ball stone-dead, Kaka pirouetting 180 degrees with the ball glued to his right boot, Henry skipping nonchalantly past Cafu and Lucio.
Yet the heart of this contest was the duel between the two spoilers: Claude Makelele of
The whole structure of these two sides rested upon their keystone players: if they cracked the rest would crumble. Faced with the rotating trio of Kaka, Ronaldinho and Juninho, Makelele was magnificent. His interceptions seemed prescient, his tackles remarkable in their anticipation. By contrast with Makelele's zip and zest, Ronaldo was back to his sluggish worst: he was clearly carrying more than just water. It was eight years since Ronaldo took to the pitch after having had a fit in his hotel the night before the 1998 final. His performance in that one-sided game was repeated here in Frankfurt with equal vapidity until a late cameo of that old acceleration won a free-kick right on the edge of the area.
Ronaldinho could not keep the free-kick down and the Samba smile was replaced with a rare grimace. He will get another chance to advertise his brilliance. For Zidane this tournament is a last, exhilarating roll of the dice.
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Features
Zidane's puff for freedom
Terence Blacker
127 words
The Independent
38
English
(c) 2006 Independent Newspapers (
Bald, ageing, un-beautiful and yet mesmerisingly brilliant, Zinedine Zidane is a sports hero like no other. In footballing terms he is a pensioner but, for game after game this summer, the French captain has run rings around the poutingpretty boys and dying-swan divas of other teams, before sending them, blubbing, back to their dressing-rooms.
Now this great man has won more sporting glory by apparently being photographed, shortly before the semifinal against
Document IND0000020060707e27700024
Zidane delays his retirement party once again
Peter Berlin International Herald Tribune
Published:
FRANKFURT Everyone in the world of soccer knows that Zinédine Zidane is near the end. But, despite promises from his last two opponents, no one at the World Cup has been able to drive him into retirement.
On Saturday night, in the last World Cup quarterfinal, Zidane out-tricked the tricksters of
This was the 54th time
Zidane swung a free kick into the goal mouth. The pass may not have been aimed at Henry, but after all his team- mates missed it with their heads, Henry arrived unnoticed beyond the far post and volleyed the ball into the roof of the net. With
In the 1998 final, Zidane scored twice as
Zizou turned 34 on June 23, and much of that hair is now gone. He has announced he will retire from soccer after the World Cup. Robinho, a clubmate at Real Madrid, was unwise enough to echo the Spaniards before the previous match and promise to send Zidane off into the sunset. Robinho, who is 22, was not fit enough to start. Zidane was.
In the very first minute, Zizou showed he meant business. He twice rolled the ball under the sole of his boot, suddenly spun and squirmed between two Brazilians and into space. He looked up and clipped the ball over the defense but too far even for the speedy Henry to reach.
A few minutes later, he wriggled into space again. This time his sliced pass would probably have been too long for Henry even if the speedy striker had been running, which he was not. Zidane gave Henry a stare, then walked toward him and shouted a few words.
When Zidane's next pass floated too long, Henry held his head in his hands and looked across the field at Zidane. All night Zidane's passing to everyone else was uncannily accurate, but for Zidane, as for so many defenders, it is a mystery where Henry will be.
Zidane, never the fastest, looked painfully slow again Saturday. In contrast, Cafú, a 36-year-old fullback, surged up and down the Brazilian right all evening. Yet Zidane dominated the game. His mastery of the ball remains absolute and mesmerizing. The Brazilians could catch him but not dispossess him. His juggling and trickery drew standing ovations just before halftime.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, the Brazilian coach, had rested the less celebrated of his overweight strikers, Adriano, choosing instead to support the other, Ronaldo, with two attacking midfielders, Kaká and Ronaldinho. Behind them, Juninho Pernambucano, who plays his club soccer for
Perhaps the idea was to try to outmaneuver the massed French defense. The creativity of Zidane and the dash of Henry may be the image of the French team, but its heart is its back four and the two veteran midfielders who screen it: Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira.
"The priority was to combat
Zidane was behind all the problems
Juan's yellow card came right at the end of the half. Zidane slalomed away from two Brazilians in his own half. Henry pulled wide, and Vieira burst through the middle and onto Zidane's precise pass. As he neared the penalty area, Juan hacked him down. The French screamed for a yellow card and were rewarded.
The second half started with Zidane curling in a free kick from the right. Vieira headed wide, with Henry lurking dangerously just behind him.
Then in the 57th minute, a free kick from the other flank produced the goal. This time Vieira missed his header. Henry, for once anticipating correctly where Zidane would put the ball, did not have to break stride as he charged in and ripped a shot into the goal.
While teammates raced to congratulate Henry, Zidane saved his energy. He raised his arms, then turned and trudged back to the center circle, where he waited. There had been speculation that his differences with Henry had been personal as well as tactical. When Henry finally arrived they hugged hard like long-lost brothers - the star of the team and the would-be star of the team in harmony at last.
Zidane and Vieira, despite their occasional ill temper, and the serene central defender Lilian Thuram, offer constant reminders that it is possible to be a great soccer player and a mature human being. Henry, meanwhile, pouts and postures; nothing is ever his fault.
Still, this was Zidane's night. Four minutes after Henry scored, he almost had the goal that would have sealed the game and crowned his evening. As Franck Ribéry surged down the left, Zidane, seeing his chance, galloped into the center. Juan lunged at Ribéry's low pass, deflecting the ball just past his own post but preventing a tap-in for Zidane.
At the other end,
"There were some hot moments at the end," Domenech said. "The oldies are still here."
The elimination of
"It's a difficult moment to be eliminated when we were so close to the semifinals," Parreira said. "I did not prepare for this, and no one in our delegation prepared for this."
For Zidane, retirement must wait.
"We don't want to stop here," he said in a television interview after the game. "It's so great that we want to carry on."
FRANKFURT Everyone in the world of soccer knows that Zinédine Zidane is near the end. But, despite promises from his last two opponents, no one at the World Cup has been able to drive him into retirement.
On Saturday night, in the last World Cup quarterfinal, Zidane out-tricked the tricksters of
This was the 54th time
Zidane swung a free kick into the goal mouth. The pass may not have been aimed at Henry, but after all his team- mates missed it with their heads, Henry arrived unnoticed beyond the far post and volleyed the ball into the roof of the net. With
In the 1998 final, Zidane scored twice as
Zizou turned 34 on June 23, and much of that hair is now gone. He has announced he will retire from soccer after the World Cup. Robinho, a clubmate at Real Madrid, was unwise enough to echo the Spaniards before the previous match and promise to send Zidane off into the sunset. Robinho, who is 22, was not fit enough to start. Zidane was.
In the very first minute, Zizou showed he meant business. He twice rolled the ball under the sole of his boot, suddenly spun and squirmed between two Brazilians and into space. He looked up and clipped the ball over the defense but too far even for the speedy Henry to reach.
A few minutes later, he wriggled into space again. This time his sliced pass would probably have been too long for Henry even if the speedy striker had been running, which he was not. Zidane gave Henry a stare, then walked toward him and shouted a few words.
When Zidane's next pass floated too long, Henry held his head in his hands and looked across the field at Zidane. All night Zidane's passing to everyone else was uncannily accurate, but for Zidane, as for so many defenders, it is a mystery where Henry will be.
Zidane, never the fastest, looked painfully slow again Saturday. In contrast, Cafú, a 36-year-old fullback, surged up and down the Brazilian right all evening. Yet Zidane dominated the game. His mastery of the ball remains absolute and mesmerizing. The Brazilians could catch him but not dispossess him. His juggling and trickery drew standing ovations just before halftime.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, the Brazilian coach, had rested the less celebrated of his overweight strikers, Adriano, choosing instead to support the other, Ronaldo, with two attacking midfielders, Kaká and Ronaldinho. Behind them, Juninho Pernambucano, who plays his club soccer for
Perhaps the idea was to try to outmaneuver the massed French defense. The creativity of Zidane and the dash of Henry may be the image of the French team, but its heart is its back four and the two veteran midfielders who screen it: Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira.
"The priority was to combat
Zidane was behind all the problems
Juan's yellow card came right at the end of the half. Zidane slalomed away from two Brazilians in his own half. Henry pulled wide, and Vieira burst through the middle and onto Zidane's precise pass. As he neared the penalty area, Juan hacked him down. The French screamed for a yellow card and were rewarded.
The second half started with Zidane curling in a free kick from the right. Vieira headed wide, with Henry lurking dangerously just behind him.
Then in the 57th minute, a free kick from the other flank produced the goal. This time Vieira missed his header. Henry, for once anticipating correctly where Zidane would put the ball, did not have to break stride as he charged in and ripped a shot into the goal.
While teammates raced to congratulate Henry, Zidane saved his energy. He raised his arms, then turned and trudged back to the center circle, where he waited. There had been speculation that his differences with Henry had been personal as well as tactical. When Henry finally arrived they hugged hard like long-lost brothers - the star of the team and the would-be star of the team in harmony at last.
Zidane and Vieira, despite their occasional ill temper, and the serene central defender Lilian Thuram, offer constant reminders that it is possible to be a great soccer player and a mature human being. Henry, meanwhile, pouts and postures; nothing is ever his fault.
Still, this was Zidane's night. Four minutes after Henry scored, he almost had the goal that would have sealed the game and crowned his evening. As Franck Ribéry surged down the left, Zidane, seeing his chance, galloped into the center. Juan lunged at Ribéry's low pass, deflecting the ball just past his own post but preventing a tap-in for Zidane.
At the other end,
"There were some hot moments at the end," Domenech said. "The oldies are still here."
The elimination of
"It's a difficult moment to be eliminated when we were so close to the semifinals," Parreira said. "I did not prepare for this, and no one in our delegation prepared for this."
For Zidane, retirement must wait.
"We don't want to stop here," he said in a television interview after the game. "It's so great that we want to carry on."
The Sunday Times
Superb Henry answers critics
BRIAN GLANVILLE
The
THE wonderful goal with which Thierry Henry knocked out Brazil, moving with perfect power and technique on the right on to the long free kick sent over by the irrepressible Zinedine Zidane, surely established Henry beyond doubt as one of the major international players of his time.
That there was doubt has to be conceded. After his dazzling exhibitions for
*
In common with the rest of the French team, he had a deeply disappointing World Cup, when so much was expected of them, as the holders, in
Four years earlier, he had only a bits-and-pieces role when
At Highbury, he has indeed been a centre-forward par excellence, a marvel of speed of feet and thought, adept at moving out to the left flank, and doing incisive damage.
Yet for all his virtuosity at Highbury, he had another poor international tournament, despite a goal or two, for
It looked initially in
Indeed, when Zidane was suspended from the third French qualifying group game against
But when the next game against
Certainly he had his moments in a game which, for the French, was largely dominated by the extraordinary Zidane, abetted by the lively forays of the new French star, Franck Ribery.
Though Henry, in the first half against
Yesterday, nothing more could have been asked of Henry, who selflessly immersed himself in this demanding position. Perhaps the measure of the trouble he caused the Brazilian defence was shown when he was so spitefully chopped down in the second half by the centre-back, Lucio.
Having scored his astonishing goal, Henry remained a danger. On 70 minutes, he almost set up a second goal, with a dangerous cross from the right that forced the Brazilian keeper, Dida, to dive desperately at the feet of Ribery. When Henry was eventually replaced on 85 minutes by Louis Saha, it was to deserved and rapturous applause.
Now, a second World Cup is surely within the possibilities of a French team which started so uneasily.
This time, if they do reach the final in
Jon Henley
The Guardian
So les Bleus, as you might have noticed had you been in Paris on Wednesday night, are through to the final, despite the best efforts of Dominique de Villepin, whose very presence at the match was widely deemed to augur disaster. The country's most unpopular prime minister since the war was doubtless hoping his post-match TV appearance would help the French electorate grasp the obvious parallels between the position of their national team (barely 10 days ago, 76% of the population felt les Bleus were incapable of beating Togo) and that of their PM (barely 10 days ago, 84% of the population felt Dominique de Villepin was incapable of running France). Sadly, the French electorate appeared little interested in such pleasing conceits, preferring largely to get drunk and chant "Italie serre les fesses, on arrive à toute vitesse", which we will not translate because it is rude.
Will
Marcel Berlins
Guardian
Within less than two days, I watched
The combined soccer-and-painting contest was an emphatic 2-0 triumph for France, the football for obvious reasons, the art because, apart from the obvious difference between a painter of genius and one of minor excellence, the Constable exhibition was such an unsatisfying event, for one particular reason. It was, admittedly, the first time that his large canvasses - his six-footers - had been shown next to the equally vast sketches he had made in preparation. As a result, the accompanying labelling was obsessed with pointing out how the final product had developed from the sketches. I felt, after a while, that I was not there to appreciate the artist, merely to spot the differences. At the Cezanne show, one just looked and marvelled. No explanations were needed.
Tony Blair, it was said, was fervently hoping for an English victory to reverse his, and the government's, growing unpopularity. How would it have done that, assuming
Will the lack of success finally dash Blair's chances of being well thought of, or even give an electoral advantage to David Cameron? A ludicrous thought. Besides, I've seen no signs of a deep slump in national morale. Fed up, yes; cross with Eriksson or Rooney, yes. That's about it.
People keep battering me with the example that Harold Wilson lost the 1970 general election to Edward Heath just four days after
Angela Merkel and Romano Prodi are alleged to be using their countries' successful World Cup campaigns to do more than just boost their own popularity. Each is accused of smuggling through unpopular laws while the attention of parliamentarians and the people is elsewhere. Not much of a tribute to democracy, that.
What a great fuss was made over the fact that the difficult Romanian diva Angela Gheorghiu was coming to the Royal Opera House to sing Tosca in a brand new production. And what a disappointment she turned out to be. I wasn't too surprised. I have seen her perform live in the past, not to my satisfaction. I didn't expect her Tosca to be wonderful, took no steps to see it, and was comforted by the near unanimity, among newspaper critics and opera-goers alike, that she wasn't quite up to it. The pre-opening hype that Gheorghiu was somehow about to inherit Maria Callas's mantle of Tosca greatness was shown to be absurd within a few notes of her opening her lungs.
But I'm fond of the Puccini opera, and last week went to the same, superb production - with not a Gheorghiu in sight. Instead, there was a "second cast", insultingly known in the trade as the B-cast, with Tosca sung by an American, Catherine Nagelstad, of whom I had not previously heard. She was terrific in every way.
I overheard a chap who had seen Gheorghiu the week before tell his companion that Nagelstad had been far better. But I did not read any reviews of her outstanding performance in the papers. There weren't any. The Romanian had captured not only all the anticipatory publicity, but all the review space as well. She sang in only five of the 12 performances, but received near enough 100% of the attention. Even had she delivered satisfaction - which she didn't - it would have been unfair.
My question is: how does the public get to know that Nagelstad is good? Obviously, the insiders are aware of her, or she would not have been asked to sing Tosca at all; and her CV shows that she has performed in many opera houses all over the world. That's not the point. The British opera-loving public, other than those who happened to be present at
The basic difficulty is that newspaper critics these days rarely cover second casts. I'm not criticising them. It's not their fault. It used to be different, I'm told. Philip Hope-Wallace, for instance, one of the foremost opera critics of the 60s, always did so - and the Guardian always gave him the space. And it is space that is at the heart of the problem today. Few arts editors of newspapers would countenance two reviews of the same opera within a couple of weeks. As it is, many worthy opera and concert performances (which tend to fight for the same space) don't get reviewed at all. The move to tabloid-size papers has exacerbated the shortage of space for critics.
At the same time, critics are faced with a choice of more productions than ever before. How can they justify writing about the same one twice? Some try, but rarely succeed. I don't have an answer, but I do know that Catherine Nagelstad deserves better. So does the public.
· This week Marcel re-read, as he does every summer, The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa: "One of the most evocative, poignant, elegaic and melancholic portrayals of lost love and lost values, and much shorter than Anna Karenina." He listened to a compilation of George Gershwin playing his compositions: "He's not always the best interpreter of his own music."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
The Times
Why republic could see a Royal marriage
By Adam Sage
Having spurned the 'bourgeois institution',
AFTER 25 years of unwedded bliss, Ségolène Royal, the leading Socialist contender for the French presidential election, may enter the “bourgeois institution” of marriage.
Mme Royal said that she is considering a civil wedding with the father of her four children, François Hollande, who is head of the Socialist Party and himself an outsider for the presidency next year. The ceremony would be “strictly for family members”, she added in an attempt to distance herself from her biggest challenger, Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right Interior Minister who goes out of his way to be seen in public with his wife, Cécilia.
Mme Royal was questioned about her marital plans after the President of the French overseas
M Hollande, who appears increasingly irritated by the rise of his “partenaire”, has made no comment. Mme Royal’s remark on a train to
The couple, who are both 52, have lived together since they were students at the prestigious higher education institution L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration, in 1980, but, like 15 per cent of French couples, they have never tied the knot. Until recently, Mme Royal said that she never would.
Asked in 2004 whether she intended to marry M Hollande if she ran for the presidency, she replied: “Certainly not. I need my freedom and my autonomy.” Two weeks ago, in an interview with the French gay magazine, Têtu, she dismissed marriage as a bourgeois institution.
But an old French political adage what says “Hors mariage, point de suffrages (Outside marriage, no votes)” is perhaps playing on her mind.
Not only has
Mme Royal argues that French society is changing faster than most politicians realise and has become open and tolerant.
But although that is true of
A wedding this summer could serve to calm concerns in the Catholic countryside about her candidacy.
French 'elephants’ muster to trample Royal
By Kim Willsher in
(Filed:
Ségolène Royal, the chic and charismatic Socialist politician who is battling to become
Miss Royal, who has electrified politics since making clear her desire to run for the highest office in next year's election, already faces opposition from a string of fellow Socialists, who accuse her of moving too far to the Right.
Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal
Now Lionel Jospin, the powerful former Socialist prime minister who was humiliated in the first round of the 2002 presidential election by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front leader, has hinted heavily that he, too, is prepared to do battle with Miss Royal.
His attempt to move back into the political limelight, after years of self-imposed exile, is seen as an attempt by one of the so-called "elephants" of the Socialist Party (PS) to thwart Miss Royal's hopes of winning the party nomination. Mr Jospin, 68, made his declaration on French television, saying he was "open" to the possibility of standing next year.
"If it appears that I am the best placed to bring together the Left, to reunite and take charge of the country, to exercise the office of president in the difficult situation France is in today, and to propose to the French people a way out of the crisis we are in, then I will ask myself the question," he said. Asked about Miss Royal, whom he is said to dislike, he described her as one of the "multiple talents" of the Socialist Party.
Faced with yet another competitor for her party's nomination, 52-year-old Miss Royal said the announcement "changed nothing".
"I'm not going to talk about the other candidates, I'm not going to criticise, I'm not going to comment. I respect their identity and their intentions," she said.
During a visit to
Pressed on Mr Jospin's possible candidature, she stuck to the line that she would stand if the party decided she was in the best position to succeed.
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
"Things are less complicated than you think," she added. "We'll see in September what the citizens think and what party members think." About 200,000 PS members will make the final decision on who should be their candidate in a vote in November.
Mr Jospin would join a line-up of at least four other members of the Socialist Party to have announced their intention to stand as would-be candidates, such as Jack Lang, the former minister of culture. Some, including another former prime minister, Laurent Fabius, have made little secret of their dislike of Miss Royal. Many object that policy pronouncements that have won her support among voters - including sending persistent young offenders to "boot camps" and criticising the mandatory 35-hour working week - pander to the centre ground and are a betrayal of the party's principles.
If Mr Jospin stands, it will lead to a head-on clash between a man who represents the party's chequered past and the woman who is widely considered the Left's brightest hope.
Recent opinion polls put Miss Royal well ahead of rivals in her own camp and edging in front of her main opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, of the ruling Right-of-centre UMP party. Among voters as a whole, 42 per cent of those surveyed by Ipsos said they preferred Miss Royal to Mr Jospin, who gained just 22 per cent.
Robert Schneider, a political commentator at the Nouvel Observateur magazine said: "Clearly he thinks he's more capable than Ségolène Royal of resolving the issues in 2007. The question is, will the party members who will choose the Socialist candidate think the same way?"
Pierre Moscovici, a former Socialist government minister who supports Dominique Strauss-Kahn, another Left-wing candidate, said: "[Jospin] explained that he could be a candidate if circumstances required but I can't see what circumstances he's talking about."
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the president of the Socialist group in the French National Assembly and mayor of
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Chic, brash Ségol�ne stirs up French race
As
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Into the closed, gray, and overwhelmingly male world of French politics, a bombshell has dropped.
Topping the opinion polls for next year's presidential elections is a chic, 52-year-old mother of four who is bringing a whirlwind of fresh air to the ruling class in Paris and promising a new style of politics to voters tired of their scandal-ridden leaders.
Ségolène Royal, bidding to be the Socialist party's presidential candidate, has stirred up almost as much opposition from fellow Socialist leaders as she has among the governing party. But she has also struck a chord with ordinary people that could resound all the way to the
Ms. Royal "is different," says Stéphane Rozès, director of French polling group l'Institut CSA. "She doesn't seem trapped by doctrinal questions and people believe she addresses their problems."
To start with, she listens - a rare trait among French politicians whose lofty distance from everyday affairs is one reason why 76 percent of voters distrust them, according to a recent poll. Royal has made her website a forum for "internauts" to express their opinions on a range of issues, and she is incorporating the ideas she likes best in the online book she is publishing chapter by chapter to set out her platform.
"That's what modern politics is," she said in a recent radio interview. "It is citizens coming to grips with a vision of society, rolling up their sleeves, and trying to fulfill it."
Nor is she afraid to veer away from traditional Socialist policies. Last month, she struck out at the 35-hour workweek, the Socialist party's proudest achievement of the past decade. She also raised howls of criticism from her party colleagues by proposing that delinquent youths be sent to military boot camp, and that their parents be sent to parenting school.
"We need a return to the heavy hand," she declared, to "firmly reestablish a just order and long-lasting security." This is the sort of language used by the tough-talking Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the likely presidential candidate for the center-right UMP party.
But while Royal's rhetoric may make her the only leftist politician capable of beating Sarkozy, it has also earned her a reputation for being authoritarian - a tendency perhaps inherited from her military father. She seems to have turned that trait into an advantage, however, with her views on law and order. The Socialists lost the last elections largely because they were seen as soft on that front, and that issue has exploded onto the political scene again following the riots that shook
Royal's foray into unfamiliar territory for a Socialist has paid off. Sixty-nine percent of the electorate supported the boot camp idea.
But this sort of heresy has raised the hackles of traditional party leaders, known as "elephants." (The elegant and slim Royal pointedly refers to herself as a "gazelle.") But it offers the prospect that Royal might modernize the French Socialist party à la Tony Blair and his reform of the British Labour Party.
The "Ségolène effect" may already be taking hold: since March, her party's membership has grown 60 percent and attracted more women than usual.
"She pulverizes the elephants," says Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist minister of health. "She makes them look out of date, old, obsolete, and sometimes ridiculous."
But though Royal cultivates the appearance of a newcomer, she is in fact a product of the French political system. She was educated at the elite "National School of Administration" (ENA), which trains the country's political cream; she worked as an aide to former president François Mitterrand, her mentor; she served in three cabinet posts, as minister for schools, the family, and the environment; and she is president of the Poitou-Charentes region - a post she won in 2004 by beating the protégé of then-Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
Accusations from fellow party leaders that Royal is politically incoherent seem to carry little weight with voters. "Her pragmatism is seen as a promise," says Mr. Rozès. "Her talk of authority and standards is reassuring. In the midst of economic and political insecurity, people want moral security."
Nor is anyone holding it against her yet that she has steered clear of expressing opinions on big political, economic, or diplomatic issues, preferring to concentrate on the sort of social questions that touch peoples' lives directly.
"She is clear; she is direct, surprising, and represents another way of doing politics," says Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a former revolutionary firebrand and now a Green Party member of the European parliament. "She is a stroke of luck for the left because for the moment she is the only person capable of beating Sarkozy."
But she will have to fight off Socialist rivals first, including her partner (by civil union) and father of her four children, François Hollande, the party leader, who has presidential ambitions himself.
Before the party's 200,000 members vote in a primary next November, those rivals will likely do all they can to undermine her image as a fresh and distinctive voice by pointing out that she has followed a traditional career path for a politician.
"At the moment she is a romantic figure," says Rozès. "Everybody sees what they want to see in her. The campaign, when she will have to address the big issues, will be her moment of truth."
Madame La Président?
• Born in
• Mother of four and partner (bound by civil union) of French Socialist Party leader François Hollande, who also has his eye on the presidency
• Graduated with honors from
• Served as Minister of the Environment (1992-1997); Minister for Education (1997-2000); Minister of Employment (2000-2002)
• Author of four books, including "Le ras-le-bol des bébés zappeurs" (roughly translated as "The Dissatisfaction of the Channel-surfing Generation")
Sources: French Embassy; The Guardian, wikipedia
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Politics & Economics: French Presidential Hopefuls Play to Disaffection on Campaign Trail
By Leila Abboud and Christina Passariello
1108 words
The Wall Street Journal
A4
English
(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
As french presidential hopeful Segolene Royal addressed 400 people at a public gym in Paris in late June, a supporter gushed that the petite brunette was even more beautiful in person than on television.
"You don't look so bad yourself," Ms. Royal flirted back, prompting cheers from the crowd of Socialist Party supporters.
At a rally in the southern city of
The theatrics of Ms. Royal and Mr. Sarkozy, who both harbor hopes of succeeding President Jacques Chirac in April elections, mark a sea change in the staid world of French politics, dominated for decades by an elite that rarely tried to appeal directly to voters. Owing in part to its aloofness and a reluctance to force through difficult overhauls, the political establishment now must contend with problems such as unemployment and ballooning spending on social programs like pensions, education, and health care.
Trouble in
The unemployment rate in
When violent riots exploded in France's impoverished suburbs last year, the government promised new housing and jobs for the mostly immigrant and Muslim population. Seven months later, little has been done. The need for an overhaul is called "urgent" by 93% of French adults surveyed by research firm IFOP. Those surveyed cited cited labor, education and the justice system as most in need of repair.
This disaffection has led candidates to cast themselves as a break with the past. "Either we change nothing and we continue this way, or we change everything in the way we conceive of politics and we really build a new France," Mr. Sarkozy shouted in Agen.
Neither Mr. Sarkozy nor Ms. Royal is a newcomer. Mr. Sarkozy, 51 years old, heads the ruling center-right
At rallies, on television and in interviews, both are tossing out provocative policy ideas that put them at odds with their parties' traditional ideology.
At Agen, Mr. Sarkozy slammed chief executives who received huge paychecks even as their companies tanked, and he called for stock options for all workers -- pitting himself against the business community, some of the center-right's staunchest supporters. Ms. Royal has criticized
Both drive their messages to voters. Ms. Royal holds weekly chats with supporters in hip Parisian cafes -- a ritual she calls "Cafe Segolene" -- and graces fashion-magazine covers.
Mr. Sarkozy shuns big cities for such smaller locales as
"They are integrating political marketing that they've imported from the
The maneuvering by Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Royal is forcing another dozen presidential hopefuls -- including former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin -- to start campaigning as well, though elections are nearly a year away.
In the past two years, Mr. Sarkozy has gained popular support with high-profile crackdowns on crime and a tough stance on immigration, two issues at the top of French concerns. He wants
"To those who don't love
Mr. Sarkozy's blunt manner attracts many of his supporters. Last week, for example, he reiterated his controversial criticism of violent youth in Parisian suburbs, calling them "scum." "He dares to say more than other politicians," said Julien Gauthey, a 20-year-old student.
Ms. Royal has a warmer approach with her audiences and is focusing on education, family policies and the environment. In the eastern French region she represents in Parliament, she allowed high-school students to debate and vote on school budgets. Earlier in her career, as the minister dedicated to families and children, she made it possible for single parents to adopt. She has spoken in favor of allowing gay people to adopt and marry. As Ms. Royal told her crowd of admirers at the gym rally, "I think people are the best judges of their own situations."
---
What Voters Want
After a year of crises in France, political candidates including
presidential hopefuls Nicholas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal have begun
reaching out to voters on issues such as:
-- Jobs:
highest, and reaches 21.9% for people under 25. Efforts to loosen laws
protecting workers have met with massive protests.
-- Justice: A botched case -- in which seven people accused of
sexually abusing children were jailed for three years before trial and
then acquitted -- has led to calls for justice system reform.
-- Education:
and too few resources, leaving graduates unprepared for the job market.
-- Security and immigration: Riots broke out last year in
impoverished suburbs populated largely by immigrants and minorities,
but promises of jobs and better housing have yet to be fulfilled. Some
voters want tougher restrictions on immigration.
In a tale of two economies, prudence lags behind the prodigal
By Ralph Atkins in
Published:
Which economy will perform better this year - the French or the German?
The answer, surely, is obvious.
ADVERTISEMENT
There is just one problem with this eminently rational analysis. This year and next, French economic growth is expected to outpace that of its larger rival across the
Élie Cohen, a member of the French prime minister's independent economic advisory panel, argues that
"
Mr Cohen says there is no reason why
There is little sign that French consumer spending growth will dry up soon. Joblessness remains high but the unemployment rate is on a clear downward trend. "What is important for the climate is the dynamic - whether it is increasing or decreasing," says Christian de Boissieu, president of the prime minister's economic advisers. French house prices, meanwhile, continue to rise. Policymakers in
In another contrast with
How much longer can
The country tends to sell to slower-growing European markets, rather than fast-expanding emerging ones, while a lack of competitiveness and the failure of the French to think as internationally as their German neighbours are also cited as obstacles.
A more fundamental point, argues Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in
In contrast to Mr Cohen and others in
Exports as a share of gross domestic product have reached about 40 per cent (compared with less than 30 per cent in
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the rich countries' think-tank, is similarly dubious about France's reliance on consumer spending.It believes the country should improve the functioning of labour markets, show more fiscal discipline and boost competition, especially in service sectors.
Whether seemingly indefatigable French shoppers will heed such warnings is another matter.
Ralph Atkins
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
July 5, 2006
The Pour
In the World of Fine Wine, There'll Always Be a France
By ERIC ASIMOV
PERMIT me to speak briefly in praise of France.
Yes, France, the greatest wine producing nation in the world.
Don't look so shocked. I've heard about the Judgment of Paris, the famous blind tasting in which French and American wines went glass-to-glass in 1976, and the French lost. I know all about the greatness of California cabernets and shiraz from Australia, and I understand that the French lag in the clever global marketing of instantly recognizable brands of wine.
Nonetheless, no country comes close to matching France, either in setting demanding standards for its wine industry or in producing such a variety of consistently excellent wine. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhone go without saying, but those famous regions are simply the most visible. From Jurançon in the southwest to Jura in the east, from Nantes on the Atlantic to Alsace on the German border, France makes wines that are endlessly compelling and should be endlessly inspiring.
Why is it necessary for me to state what should be obvious? Because a prevailing attitude toward France and its wines, in the New World at least, seems stuck somewhere between pity and glee for an industry supposedly rotting from within.
New World producers and journalists like to jeer at the sacred French notion of terroir as a myth constructed to preserve French status in the industry, and they laugh at the rigidity of the French appellation rules, which dictate what French growers can plant, where they can plant it, and how they should tend the vines. The European Union's recent decision to spend millions of dollars in an effort to diminish a European wine glut by digging up vineyards and turning excess wine into ethanol contributed to a confused perception of industry-wide crisis. The perception springs from an oversimplification of the French wine business, and no doubt a bit of wishful thinking.
The latest chorus of American gloating was heard around the time of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Paris tasting, even as many of these same gloaters were lining up to pay record prices for the heralded 2005 vintage of Bordeaux. When French winemakers were understandably reluctant to participate in yet another re-enactment in May, American wine writers were quick to play the cowardice card. And when the event feebly played out, and the Americans won again, writers exulted.
"Sacré bleu! Make that red, white and blue," Linda Murphy wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle, which can perhaps be forgiven for boosterish support of an industry in its backyard. In maybe the unkindest blow of all, Hollywood is apparently considering a movie version of the original event, based on the book "Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine" (Scribner, 2005), by George M. Taber.
Maybe it's payback for years of supercilious French sneering at the American wine industry. Or maybe Americans just need to lash out to pump themselves up with competitive energy, like football players pounding their lockers in an adrenalin-fueled frenzy. Any way you look at it, American wine partisans have got themselves a punching bag and they call it France.
Business-oriented types look at the French wine industry as old and tired. Through rigidity, bureaucracy and lack of creativity, they say, once-dominant France clings to old and outdated ways, and can no longer compete with modern wine powers like Australia, the United States, Chile and South Africa.
Those sympathetic to France heave a sigh, shrug their shoulders and say, What can you do? Meanwhile, some of the harshest critics are among the French themselves, particularly growers and winemakers in less prestigious areas, or entrepreneurs who feel hamstrung by French wine laws.
Make no mistake. France's troubles, as far as the wine business goes, are many. Consumption at home has dropped precipitously as the culture that once prized the long lunch and the arduous construction of a meal has taken a route toward convenience foods, quickly gobbled. The quest for productivity in a globalized economy, no doubt, has also taken its toll on daytime consumption, while stricter drunken-driving laws have also had an effect. Troubled fortunes in the wine economies of Bordeaux and the Languedoc are well known, if not well understood. And France's share of the wine export market has tumbled as well.
What's crucial to understand is that France has two entirely different wine economies, and one should not be confused with the other. The first produces oceans of cheap, occasionally palatable wine, sold for immediate consumption under lowly appellations, like plain Bordeaux or Beaujolais, for example, rather than the more prestigious and more specific St.-Julien or Juliénas. This industry is indeed in a deep crisis, with many growers hurting badly. Historically, much of this wine was for domestic consumption, and this segment has taken the biggest hit as the market has shrunk. Producers who would like to sell these wines overseas say they feel hampered because they cannot compete against the cleverly branded bottles of New World producers, who often use winemaking techniques unavailable to French producers.
The other industry makes the middle to high-end wines, those sold around the world, consumed in restaurants and reviewed in publications like Wine Spectator. Producers like Sylvain Pitiot, who makes the seductive, voluptuous Clos de Tart, a grand cru Burgundy, are doing exceptionally well, regardless of how many gallons of French wine the European Union wishes to convert to fuel. Like Clos de Tart, much of the high-quality end of the business is prospering.
In many ways, the French A.O.C. laws, for appellation d'origine contrôlée, which protect quality at the top, are simultaneously responsible for the demise of the low end. In other words, the law that insures the meaning of St.-Julien by dictating what the wine is made of and how it is labeled can stifle the producer of ordinary Bordeaux, who might want to legally blend some syrah into the cabernet sauvignon, or call the wine by a cute, memorable brand name — not Yellow Tail, but maybe Red Head. But while a producer in the Languedoc might wish he could pull out all his grenache and replace it with syrah, a Burgundy producer like Mr. Pitiot would be appalled at the idea of somebody wasting precious pinot noir territory by replacing it with merlot.
It may be that both ends of the French wine industry can only work at cross purposes, with the Old World tradition of exalting specific place names struggling against the New World merchandising power of the brand name. For France to try to accommodate the low end by compromising the standards that have insured its high-end dominance might in the end be catastrophic for the whole industry.
"Europeans should realize they can't play that New World game," said Neal Rosenthal, an American wine importer who is devoted to the concept of terroir. "They're better off protecting what they have and making sure people better understand the reasons behind it."
Not that the standards can't be beneficially modified. In a recent column in Decanter, a British consumer magazine, Michel Bettane, the French wine critic, suggested that St.-Émilion would be a fine place to plant chardonnay, which is currently not permitted under A.O.C. rules. Maybe so. And as in any bureaucracy, a stultifying rigidity often makes rational decision making difficult. But on the whole, the A.O.C. rules do far more to protect greatness than to prevent it.
While a further decline on the bottom end of the industry will have a tremendous social and human cost in France, it won't undermine the greatness of French wines. It's possible to imagine that France will be joined at the top by countries like Italy and Spain, which produce distinguished, singular wines like Barolo and Rioja, and are working hard to improve the quality in distinctive regions that have long been ignored.
It's harder to imagine New World countries like the United States and Australia reaching the same pinnacle. Their leading wines, whether made of cabernet, chardonnay, shiraz or pinot noir, will always be measured against the French, and regardless of the blind tasting here or there, few people really take seriously the notion that the New World wines will surpass the French reference points on a large scale. What's more important about New World wines is how they have improved their quality on the low-to-middle ranks, to the point where today it is possible to say that very few bad wines are produced.
No, France will always set a standard, barring some sort of colossal, self-destructive move, like gutting its appellation rules. Should that happen, Americans and the rest of the world would then have great cause to jeer.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
posted by JB CADIER at 9:55 AM
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