Sarkozy's Villepinte campaign speech allows Bernadette Chirac forty winks

Le Petit Journal has been up to its usual tricks on Canal +, treating viewers to a different sort of look as to what happened at Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign rally last weekend at Villepinte, a town in the northeastern suburbs of Paris.

The programme is of course irreverent and certainly doesn't take either itself or the subjects it chooses to "investigate" too seriously.

But it certainly provides a refreshing, if somewhat cynical, look at political news stories and what's behind them.

Monday's edition, introduced as usual by host Yann Barthès, decided to take a look at THE political event of the weekend; Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign rally at Villepinte.

You know the rally: the one at which, among other things, he threatened to suspend France's participation in Schengen if re-elected.

Sarkozy spent over an hour addressing an adoring crowd of activists who, as Le Petit Journal showed viewers, had been put in the mood by the appropriate warming-up beforehand.

Yes it was a grand show.

While the event's cameras were trained on Sarkozy, Le Petit Journal decided to concentrate on the reactions of those Big Cheeses seated in the front row, some of whom would also be addressing the masses.

They included prime ministers, past and present, Édouard Balladur, Alain Juppé and François Fillon; not a facial muscle moving as they listened (and inwardly groaned).

Much larger than life actor Gérard Depardieu was there, looking decidedly flushed and first lady, Carla-Bruni-Sarkozy, and Jean-François Copé, leader of the governing Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party seemed to be having quite a natter - perhaps they had already heard the speech too many times.

Bernadette Chirac (screenshot from Le Petit Journal)

And then there, true to her word, was Bernadette Chirac, the woman who had in a recent interview with RTL radio said that she would be a "fervent supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy" during his campaign.

But at 78, the effort was beginning to show as the former first lady bravely fought to shake off the descending eyelid syndrome which overcomes many of us when unable to concentrate or simply not that interested.

It was the most courageous of attempts but...not surprisingly, she lost.

Well until the applause stirred her, that is.

Now what's her husband, former president Jacques Chirac, up to?

Le Petit Journal du 12/03 - People attitude à Villepinte