“Old” politics to dominate TV and radio airtime in French general election campaign

It’s election time - again - in France.

Just a few weeks after the two rounds to choose the country’s president (done and dusted - Emmanuel Macron, in case you weren’t paying attention), the French totter off to the polls again.

Not once, but twice (very French) in the space of eight days…June 11 and (if there’s no 50 per cent plus majority in a constituency) June 18.

This time around it’ll be to elect a new lower chamber, the Assemblée nationale (national assembly), with Macron’s (rebranded party) La République en marche (LREM) favourites, among the pollsters, to assure him and his newly-appointed government a majority.

Assemblée nationale (screenshot)

But with campaigning for the 577 seats underway, there’s something of an anomaly in the allocation of time for (don’t yawn) party political broadcasts.

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, or CSA, is the body that regulates TV and radio in France and gets to decide how much airtime each particular party is allowed.

And that decision (made even more complicated in this explanation…in French) is based primarily on the size of each party or group’s representation in the current national assembly.

So, even though the second round of the presidential election was fought out between Macron and the far right Front National’s (FN) candidate, Marine Le Pen, it’s the two main parties in the “old” parliament who stand to gain most time for their campaign clips.

The Socialist party (at around six per cent in the polls) will have a full two-hours worth of airtime.

Meanwhile Les Républicans (19 per cent in the latest surveys) one hour and 44 minutes. That’ll be bolstered somewhat by their centre-right “partners”  Union des démocrates et indépendants (Union of Democrats and Independents, UDI) 22 minutes.

Politics as usual then with, if you so choose to interpret the opinion polls, most of the electorate more concerned to hear what those parties that won’t have very much airtime have to say.

Just look at the figures…or rather the disparity.

The centrist LREM - leading the polls with 32 per cent will get 12 minutes.

The far right FN - at around 19 per cent in the polls will also get 12 minutes.

And the far left La France insoumise - currently at 15 per cent…12 minutes.

French journalist Vanessa Burggraf gives Philippe Poutou a lesson on how to humiliate a presidential candidate…without trying too hard

Media bashing has, in the wake of The Donald’s tediously repetitive “fake news” and “alternative facts” diatribe, become something of a recurring theme in the French presidential election.

Some supporters of the centre-right (although there’s not too much “centre” about him) candidate François Fillon, have been only too keen to lay the blame for the so-called Penelopegate affair (charges that Fillon had employed his wife, Penelope,  as a parliamentary assistant for the modest sum of €900,000 for work that was perhaps never done) at the proverbial door of journalists. The controversy has highlighted the shameful (but, it has to be said, not illegal in France) practice of disabusing tax-payers’ money and prompted the judiciary to get involved.

And the far-right’s Marine Le Pen…well, she’s more in the mould of The Donald in launching regular barbs concerning biased reporting or insufficient media coverage for the Front National while at the same time popping up whenever invited on prime time news to polish and preen her electoral image.

Journalists in cahoots with the political classes? Well, it makes for good fodder and it doesn’t matter whether it’s true (or fake or even an alternative fact). Most pundits would agree that the French are generally pretty cheesed off with their elected (national) representatives as a whole (and who can blame them?)

Vanessa Burggraf (screenshot "On n'es pas couché")

And an event on Saturday evening, will surely for many, only “add grist to the mill” (love a good cliché) that journalists and politicians are in their own little Parisian bubble - far away from the concerns of the general electorate.

It happened during a segment of Laurent Ruquier’s weekly talk show on France 2, “On n'est pas couché”.

The invited political guest was one of the so-called “minor candidates” in a field that currently boasts a total of 49  (although not all of them are expected to be able to gather the required signatures to be able to stand) Philippe Poutou from the far-left Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste.

Philippe Poutou (screenshot "On n'est pas couché")

One of Rouquier’s regular interviewers, Vanessa Burggraf, proved her full journalistic credentials in posing a question about the role of company bosses in preventing redundancies but somehow never managed to wrap her lips around what she really wanted to ask, especially after she was interrupted by the show’s host.

There then followed over two minutes of buffoonery from Burggraff, Ruquier and others as Poutou looked on, bemused and evidently uncomfortable. After all, his party - and it doesn’t matter what you think about its policies - is one the declares itself to “look after the little guy”.

Complete humiliation for Poutou, totally shameful on the part of Burgraff and Ruquier and simply unnecessary.

After all, the recorded segment could simply have been edited. But it wasn’t.

Why Nicolas Sarkozy should withdraw from the presidential primary race

Even though Nicolas Sarkozy is popular with a sizeable chunk of the centre-right Les Républicains (LR) party faithful, the French in general could probably come up with a fair number of reasons why he shouldn’t take part in the primary to choose next year’s presidential candidate.

After all, Sarkozy’s popularity in those ubiquitous opinion polls might have risen since he officially launched his campaign, but he still has some ground to make up on his main rival, Alain Juppé.

Nicolas Sarkozy (screenshot Euronews “Zapping” August 2016)

More importantly, no matter how sceptical you might be about the veracity of opinion polls, a whopping 79 per cent of the French don’t want to see Sarkozy at the Elysée palace.

Not surprising really as he has already had the job once.

And, in spite of all his pugnacity, Sarkozy proved he really wasn’t up to achieving much on political, economic and social fronts, while reducing the role of president to that of an often ill-mannered (“Casse-toi alors, pauv' con !”) impetuous caricature.

Then there’s his programme (as outlined in his latest bestseller “Tout pour la France”) - an almost knee-jerk reaction to the increase in support over the past years for the far right Front National by proposing policies that would move LR further to the right and taking a hard line on identity, immigration and security.

But most importantly there’s the so-called Bygmalion affair - when Sarkozy’s party, then known as Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) allegedly “connived with a friendly PR company (Bygmalion) to hide the true cost of his 2012 presidential election campaign” and thereby breaking the limits allowed on campaign spending.

On Monday, the French prosecutor's office recommended that Sarkozy should stand trial for breaching campaign spending limits.

“A crude political manoeuvre”, claimed Sarkozy supporters and in particular his lawyer, Thierry Herzog; the inference being that the judicial system bowed to pressure from the Elysée palace.

And the timing - coming as it did on the opening day of the trial of Jérôme Cahuzac (remember, the former budget minister in charge of cracking down on tax evasion who was forced to resign in April 2013 after he admitted he had held  a secret foreign bank account for about 20 years) was too much of a coincidence and simply evidence that the government (read, the French president, François Hollande) was “using the French justice system to divert attention (from the opening of the trial).

Yes, well. There might well be some credibility on both counts as few would maintain that politicians are the most ethical of creatures.

But, here’s the crux of the matter. It’s not really important whether Sarkozy - as he claims - knew nothing about the false accounting and overspending, the fact remains that he was the beneficiary.

“That’s why he should withdraw,” said Christophe Barbier, managing editor of the weekly news magazine “L’Express” on his morning slot on BFM TV.

“He was maybe unaware of what was happening,” said Barbier. “But he was the one who benefitted (from the incredible overspending and false accounting) politically and electorally. And that’s the reason he should withdraw,” he repeated, “If only for reasons of humility.”

Yes. Well. Hardly one of Sarkozy’s main attributes.

Alain Juppé calls on UMP supporters to vote against Front National in Doubs by-election

No, not the most thrilling or exciting of headlines at face value.

But rather telling on a number of levels about the state of the opposition Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP).

First some background.

Last weekend saw the first round in voting in a by-election in the département of Doubs in eastern France.

It was to contest the seat made available by the forced resignation of the former finance minister, Pierre Moscovici who has since gone on to a cushy number at the higher European Commission level.

A "safe" Socialist party seat in theory.

But, as we all know, the governing Socialist party (PS) isn't exactly "flavour of the month" and the French president, François Hollande...well, although his popularity ratings increased recently after his handling of the Paris attacks in January) the road to a possible second term in 2017 remains a difficult one.

Add to that the disarray that still exists within the UMP and the far-right Front National's (FN) leader, Marine Le Pen's, strategy of combining disaffection with the two major parties with her own populist appeal, and it wasn't suprising that the FN's candidate, Sophie Montel, topped last Sunday's first round of voting in the by-election.

What was unexpected though - certainly for the UMP - was that its candidate, Charles Demouge, only finished third behind Montel and a couple of points adrift of the Socialst party's Frédéric Barbier.

UMP eliminated and Montel to face Barbier in a second round run-off.

And that has put the UMP in something of a quandary - although it shouldn't really.

Its recently-elected leader (a certain Nicolas Sarkozy - you'll surely have heard of him) had promised "unity" in an attempt to resolve party divisions of recent years.

But his slow reaction to the first round vote in Doubs, coupled with some of the party's leading members clearly stating the very opposite of what he is most likely to propose, has once against highlighted the UMP's discord.

The party's number two, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, appeared on BFM TV on Monday morning to give her reaction to the Doubs ballot and how would recommend UMP supporters cast their votes in the second round.

"I would choose to vote for the candidate that opposed the Front National," she said, admitting that it was probably a minority position within the UMP but one she defended nonetheless.

"The Socialist party leaves the country 'desperate'," she said. "But the Front National would disfigure France."



And joining her - even though he had maintained before the first round that he wouldn't comment on the outcome, was Alain Juppé.

Writing on his blog, Juppé clearly called for UMP supporters to cast their vote in the second round to the Socialist party's candidate to "block" the FN.

"Our main political rival now is the FN.," he wrote.

"Whether it can reach power is no longer a hypothetical question and in my opinion this would be a catastrophe for our country.”

Actually his words were much more powerful that that - you can read the full text here.

Alain Juppé (screenshot Europe 1 interview)

Juppé, of course, is a declared candidate in the UMP's primary to determine its 2017 presidential candidate.

A likely opponent and his main one - if you believe political pundits - is expected to be Sarkozy who so far seems to be in favour of the "neither, nor" policy of refusing to endorse any of the two remaining candidates and instead allow (UMP) voters to decide for themselves.

Yes - the courage of convictions and political principles is astounding.

And he's taking plenty of time to come up with a grand design which might well be ignored by those (few) who bother to vote anyway.

Montel might have officially come top in the first round of voting but the big winner was the 60 per cent abstention rate.

Closer magazine "outs" Front National's Florian Philippot

So a prominent member of the far-right Front National (FN), Florian Philippot, is apparently  gay.

Florian Philippot (screenshot i>Télé interview November 2014)

It's not exactly a secret, although not a story with which the media the rest of the French media has been prepared to run.

Until, that is, the weekly celebrity news and gossip magazine, Closer, decided "to break the silence" by publishing photographs in its latest edition of Philippot and his partner, on a break in Vienna.

Yes, Closer - that bastion of first-rate journalism whose credo seems to be that "scandal and sauciness" are newsworthy and has made its mark by publishing unauthorised long lens photographs, is proving true to its reputation.

Remember back in 2006 those photos of Ségolène Royal clad only in a bikini on a beach?

Or in 2012  the shots of the Duchess of Cambridge, topless while on a private holiday in the south of France?

And more recently the French president, François Hollande, snapped on a scooter as he made his way to a late night liaison with actress Julie Gayet?

Those were all "stories", complete with photographs published by Closer.

The magazine's latest "target", in what it presumably once again hopes will help boost sales, has been the subject of "rumour" for quite a while.

In fact a "gay lobby" within the FN was was suggested by the far-right weekly newspaper Minute in January 2013 when it claimed on its front cover that "le lobby gay s'introduit partout" - the media, all political parties and even the FN.

At the time, Philippot accused the newspaper of "stigmatising homosexuals and spreading rumours".

Such tittle tattle certainly seemed to put the party's leadership at odds with its declared position at the time of being against gay marriage as the bill to make same-sex marriage legal made its way through parliament with accompanying demonstrations of those opposed to the government's proposals.

The party's  leader, Marine Le Pen, said she was against the reform, but left it open to individual members to decide whether they would join the demonstrations.

So it's perhaps not a surprise that Le Pen "defended" Philippot when the news that Closer had outed him.

"This is a very serious violation of individual freedoms.," she told Europe 1 radio.

"This type of behaviour is unacceptable for Florian Philippot just as much as it was for François Hollande.  Private life is sacred."

Le Pen's reaction has been mirrored by other politicians  across the political spectrum and Tweets (what else) of outrage that what was essentially a private matter should, as far as Closer is concerned, be of public interest.

Proof that the real "scandal" is not that Philippot is gay - that's neither relevant to his political ideas nor particularly interesting.

Rather that a magazine such as Closer should be allowed to continue to "sell" based on publication of unauthorised photos.

And if the French were to vote in parliamentary elections today...?

Warning - this piece contains so many numbers, it could serious "do your head in"

A polls has been published in France today which, in and of itself, means very little because it's based on a false premise.

But (and you knew there would be one) it's enough to give the current government, the Socialist party (PS) and in fact the whole of the political Left, the heebie-jeebies.

If (conditional) there were a parliamentary election in France today (and the next one isn't due until June 2017) the Left, and in particular the PS, would suffer a humiliating (to say the least) defeat.

All right, so the poll appears in Le Figaro, a national daily not exactly known for it's love of the PS and whose chairman happens to be Serge Dassault, a member of the opposition centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) and a member of the Senate since 2004.

And was it was carried out by l'Institut CSA (conseil, sondage et analyse) part of the Bolloré group whose president and Chief executive officer, Vincent Bolloré, just happens to be a friend of the newly-elected leader the UMP - Nicolas Sarkozy.

But don't start reading too much into those "facts". They're just an aside as, after all, a poll is just a poll - isn't it?

It has to be both objective and representative.

So what does the Le Figaro's poll "indicate" - bearing in mind that the imaginary election is not going to happen today.

Well...

Using the current two-round majority system, the centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) and the centrist Union des démocrates et indépendants (Union of democrats and independents, UDI) would win between 485 and 505 of the 577 seats in the national assembly.

"A level never obtained by the centre-right" points out Le Figaro which published the poll. "Better even than the 1993 parliamentary election results (when the two centre-right/centrist parties of the time, the Rassemblement pour la République and the Union pour la démocratie française, won 257 and 215 seats respectively)."

The far-right Front National, FN (currently with just two members of parliament) would see it numbers increase to anything from 14 to 24 seats.

And the Left - including the Socialist party, the Greens and the Front de Gauche?

Well they would have to be satisfied with between 56 and 66 seats.

The make up of the national assembly if an election were held today (screenshot "La Nouvelle Édition" - Canal +)

And the "debacle" for the PS would hardly be avoided (although it would be less humiliating) if a system of proportional representation were used.

UMP and UDI - between 208 and 248 seats.
The Left - (PS, Greens and Front de Gauche) - between 180 and 220 (hardly respectable...but)
FN - between 138 and 159 seats.

Draw your own conclusions as to how to interpret the figures and even the value of the (yet another) poll.

But a clearer picture will emerge next year as...guess what.

There will be elections...departmental on March 22 and 29 and regional...at some later date once the territorial reform (the proposal to reduce of the number of regions from 22 to 13 in metropolitan France) has finally been signed, sealed and delivered.

Poll shows "Sarko revival" gathers momentum - among UMP party supporters

We all know how much French politicians seem to love opinion polls.

Well, here's one that'll have the former president Nicolas Sarkozy grinning from ear to ear, at least in terms of the level of support he has within his "political family" the centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP).

It's an exclusive (aren't they always?) survey carried out by Ifop on behalf of the national radio station Europe 1 and the daily newspaper Le Figaro to gauge the impact of Sarkozy's 45-minute TV interview with the channel's prime time weekend news anchor Laurent Delahousse on Sunday.

And the result?

A resounding win for Sarkozy, as far as, UMP supporters were concerned, in the party's leadership battle due to be put to a vote among members on November 29, with a second round scheduled a week later should no candidate secure a majority.

At the moment, that second round doesn't look as though it'll be necessary as the poll shows Sarkozy (at 75 per cent) to be way ahead of his rivals Bruno Le Maire (16 per cent) and Hervé Mariton (2 per cent) as far as UMP supporters.

(screenshot Ifop poll for Europe 1 and Le Figaro)

And the future looks bright for Sarkozy in terms of his popularity among UMP members should he decide to run for the party's nomination to be its presidential candidate in 2017.

The poll has Sarkozy at 65 per cent with his nearest rival Alain Juppé at 23 per cent and the "also-rans" François Fillon and Xavier Bertrand at seven and two per cent respectively.

Once again those figures are only a reflection of the Sarkozy's popularity among the party's supporters - and even then 28 per cent of them

But it's not all good news for Sarkozy.

The general electorate still considers Juppé (at 33 per cent) to be the party's best candidate in the 2017 presidential election ahead of Sarkozy (26 per cent).

And although UMP members will, of course, ultimately decide who'll run (and remember Sarkozy hasn't officially confirmed he'll seek the party's nomination) it'll be the French as a whole who decide the best man or woman for the job.

A couple of other factors to consider as well are other polls released recently showing that the far-right Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, would make it through to a second round run-off in 2017 - no matter who would be her opponents in the first round, along with another (carried out before Sunday's interview) showing that 60 per cent of the French "disapproved" of Sarkozy's comeback.

And let's not forget the judicial enquiries which could "continue to dog" the success of the so-called "Sarko revival".

One thing's for certain, more polls - many more of them - over the coming months will allow those "in the know" to interpret and analyse to their hearts' delight.

Anyway, for the moment,  for you number crunchers out there, the full Ifop poll results and the methodology can be found here.

Happy reading!

Oh, and because a healthy slice of satire never did any harm, here's Monday's edition of Les Guignols de l'info on Canal + with (among other things) its own particular take on that televised interview and Sarkozy's comeback.

Now that, you can really enjoy.

Les Guignols du 22/09 - L'interview de Nicolas Sarkozy

So, who's "Lookin' after number one"?

Well, the title is not an allusion to the 1977 debut single of the same name by The Boomtown Rats.

Instead it's a tortured reference to one of the "big" political stories to have made the news in France over the past week.

"What could that be?" you might be asking (or not).

After all, it's a while since I let my fingers do the walking and brought you bang up-to-date with an objective look at the wonderful world that is French politics.

It's the upcoming European elections perhaps, and the somewhat "contrived" battery of polls which show French voters apparently giving the far-right Front National's (FN) anti-EU "programme" (sorry about the inverted commas - needs must) the thumbs up when everyone knows the big winner will really be the abstention rate.

Yawn.

Or Robert Ménard, one of the founders, and former secretary-general, of Reporters Sans Frontières who now, as mayor of the town of Béziers in the south of France (a post he won with the backing of the FN in March) has decided to ban - wait for it - the townsfolk from leaving their washing out on their balconies if it can be seen from the street?

Oh wait a moment. It'll only be between the hours of six o'clock in the morning and 10 pm. So it'll be all right to hang your undies out to dry during the night.

No. Too silly by far. Although a piece tracing Ménard's career from being a member of the Socialist party to becoming a self-declared "reactionary" in favour of the death penalty and against same-sex marriage might be interesting.

Maybe "Lookin' after number one!" alludes to Alain Delon, an...er...icon (is that the right word?) of the French cinema; a living legend whose brain seems to have become addled over the years (well he's getting on) and feels the need, and probably thinks his "star" status gives him the right, to express his social and political views in public.

After saying last year that same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry, that being gay was "against nature" and that "men were meant to woo women and not pick up other guys", it's perhaps little wonder that the 78-year-old has come out (entirely intentional turn of phrase) in support of Christine "homosexuality is an abomination" Boutin and her Force Vie movement in the European elections.

Nope. Delon and Boutin are far too busy looking after family values to be concerned about only themselves.

So "Lookin' after number one!" must be about Jean-François Copé's problems as the leader of the centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP).

You know the story, surely.

Copé's alleged "shady dealings" with UMP funds by handing out contracts to a communications company run by a couple of close buddies, which charged the party for events which never happened.

Ho hum. Looks as though it's all about to go ballistic next week when police will question three UMP parliamentarians who could well provide the proof that Copé is responsible for certain...er..."irregularities".

No, it's not that either.

Rather "Lookin' after number one!" refers to the former political scribe-turned politician  Henri Guaino and a parliamentary resolution he's tabling which shows that at the very least he has cojones.

Henri Guaino (screenshot "Bourdin direct" BFM TV, May 2014)

You see (and this is going to be a little complicated to explain) Guaino made remarks about the judge who has been investigating the dealings of Nicolas Sarkozy (to whom he was both a special advisor and political speechwriter) with French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.

He (Guaino) accused Jean-Michel Gentil (the judge) of "dishonouring the justice system" in the manner in which he was questioning and investigating Sarkozy.

That comment clearly didn't sit well with l'Union syndicale des magistrats who brought a case against Guaino to the public prosecutor for "contempt of court and discrediting an act or judicial decision, under conditions likely to undermine the authority of the justice or independence".

Guaino's reaction? Well, he stood by everything he said.

But just to take out some extra "insurance", he's now asking his fellow parliamentarians to pass a resolution which would...." suspend the proceedings by the public prosecutor of Paris against Henri Guaino, MP for contempt of court..."

All right. That's more than enough French politics.

Here's Bob Geldof (pre KBE) and the rest of 'em

Human rights group given the heave-ho by far-right Front National mayor

He promised during his election campaign that he would do it and Steeve Briois, the newly-installed far-right Front National mayor in the town of Hénin-Beaumont in the northern French département of Pas-de-Calais has proven true to his word.

Steeve Briois (screenshot AFP report)

In his first political act since taking office, Briois has suspended the grant to the local branch of the Ligue des droits de l’homme (Human Rights League, France - LDH) and ordered the association to vacate the premises it had occupied free of charge under the previous mayor.

"For years, the LDH (in Hénin-Beaumont) has benefited from grants and has been allowed the free use of local government-owned office space," said Briois.

"No lease been had ever been signed between the extreme left association and the previous mayor and the grant was completely illegal."

Hello? The LDH an "extreme left" assocation?

Well apparently so, as far as the FN is concerned because during the recent local election campaign, the president of the Ligue des droits de l’homme - Pas de Calais, Alain Pruvot, had warned "of the danger of the FN" and of the need to "block its way".

"We are quite aware of the danger there could be from the Front National gaining power in  Hénin-Beaumont and we want to make voters aware of that," Pruvot said at a press conference back in March.

"We want to counter ideologically the FN and show how dangerous it potentially is."

http://www.bfmtv.com/politique/henin-beaumont-ldh-met-garde-contre-dangerosite-fn-735092.html

For Briois, that was tantamout to a non-governmental organisation meddling in politics, and cited a 2002 ruling by the Conseil d'Etat which declared that "organisations that fought a political party whose existence was legally recognised could not be subsidised."

In reality though, Briois was probably just following a line set down by the party's leader, Marine Le Pen, during the run-up to the local elections when she had said in an interview with Le Monde that associations should be "put up against the wall, to show them that they mustn't  interfere in the political debate."

As far as the LDH is concerned, the FN's arguments might be legal but they also come "with a whiff of a witch hunt."

"The LDH is a political organisation but not a partisan one," its regional delegate, Georges Voix, said.

"We're not fighting a political party but an ideology."

Celebrity candidates in the French local elections

No, it's not a newly-invented television programme along the lines of  "Celebrity Squares", the British comedy game show based on the original US "Hollywood Squares".

Instead it's a look at some of those French "celebrities" who've taken the plunge and decided to stand in the country's local elections.

And with more than 900,000 declared candidates fighting it out for places on one of the 36,552 councils up and down the country and the 128 overseas, it's perhaps not surprising that a few "famous faces" have decided to jump on the political bandwagon.

Perhaps the best-known one is the popular TV game show host Vincent Lagaf'.

The 54-year-old presenter of such delights as "Bigdil" ("Let's make a deal" in the United States) and most recently  "Le Juste Prix" ("The price is right") has taken time out from his day job to campaign in his home town of Cavalaire-sur-Mer in the département of Var.

Lagaf' (under his real name Vincent Rouil) occupies last place on Philippe Leonelli's 29-strong list so stands no chance of being elected, but that hasn't stopped the TF1 showman from throwing himself into "the cause" of increasing the profile of the town.

"It's by no means a political reconversion," he said.

"It's just that I would like to suggest ideas for activities and events - my area of expertise."

Vincent Lagaf' (source Wikipedia, author - M.Mopie)

Mathieu Johann is a name some of you might (???) remember if you were glued to your boxes watching the fourth series of the TV talent show "Star academy" back in 2004.

Since then, he has carved out a moderately successful music career (not taking into account the one album he hs released) by opening a couple of café-concert bars in his native town of Saint-Lô in the département of La Manche.

And that's where the 33-year-old has decided to stand, announcing to his "fans" on Facebook that he would be appearing on the list headed by François Brière.

Johann is third on the list - so stands a pretty good chance of being elected - but maybe it would help if he pointed out to people that he appears under his real name of Mathieu Lepresle.

Moving swiftly along, and another singer - this time one who can claim real success - has also taken the decision to stand in the town in which he was born.

It's Grégoire (surname Boissenot) of "Toi + Moi" fame (you surely remember his first hit in 2008) and a string of singles since including last year's  pretty awful  ""Si tu me voyais" from his third album which was kindly "chosen" for your "delectation" as a Friday's French music break.


Have no fears though, Boissenot isn't planning to give up his music career. The 34-year-old is just "lending his support" to the current mayor of Senlis in the département of Oise, Pascale Loiseleur, on whose list the singer is 28th out of 33 candidates.

Grégoire (screenshot from the official video for "Si tu me voyais")

Another candidate who took his first tentative steps in the world of music (the first season of X Factor) before moving on to modelling and now politics, is Bruno Clavet.

The 24-year-old has decided to throw in his lot with the far-right Front National (FN) and is the party's candidate in the race to be mayor of the IIIème arrondissement in Paris.

When he announced his candidacy and published a photo of himself with the party's founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen on Twitter, Internet users had a field day, reworking some of Clavet's former modelling photo's into fake campaign posters.

Bruno Clavet, spoof campaign poster (source Twitter)

"When I first approached Jean-Marie Le Pen, I was a little unsure as to how he would react," said Clavet, who now describes himself as a "student in strategy and public affairs"

"But he was 100 per cent behind me and happy that young people wanted to become involved in politics."



Municipales à Paris: quand un candidat FN... par leparisien


From the realms of TV reality (well, you know it had to happen) comes Cindy Lopes - a former contestant on that intellectually challenging show "Secret Story".

The self-proclaimed "grande gueule" is to bring all her charm and diplomacy to Guy Juin's list in the town of Villeneuve-le-Roi in the suburbs of Paris, where she has been living for almost three years.

Fourth on a list of 33 candidates, Lopes says that, "Being a big mouth is very popular in politics. I am well respected in this town and I have also great respect for people."

Should she be elected, Lopes says she'll still have plenty of time to continue making television appearances (in delightful programmes such as "Les Anges de la téléréalité"  presumably, in which former reality contestants try out for new careers in...oh, you Google it) because "politics won't be a full time occupation."

Now there's a great campaign slogan.

Finally, Alexandre Piel was supposed to have lent his considerable bulk to Laurent Bonnaterre's list in the town of  Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf in the département of Seine-Maritime.

In fact there was a great deal of media interest when Piel, who was crowned one of the Mister Universe winners in Hamburg last year, announced in January that he would be standing on the Socialist party's list.

But it all went a little pear-shaped for the 39-year-old a few days later when he was taken into custody for questioning.

While that might be an ideal launching pad for political life at a national level, neither sex nor financial impropriety was the reason for Piel being questioned.

Rather it was the suspicion of doping after police intercepted a package from Thailand addressed to Piel that contained anabolic steroids.

Bonnaterre issued a statement saying he had spoken to Piel and the bodybuilder had "presented his apologies as well as his intention to withdraw himself from the list."

French local elections - for two candidates, Henriette Frantz and Elise Machado, age makes no difference

Recently nonagenarians Arthur Richier and Roger Sénié decided to call it a day - politically speaking.

At 92 and 93 years of age respectively and after more than 60 years each in the job, both men thought better of standing yet again to be mayor of their villages.

But they are (almost) mere babes (all right, let's not exaggerate) compared to Henriette Frantz.

She has decided to put herself forward as a candidate in this year's local elections...at the age of 100.

The former headmistress occupies the last but one position on Yves Crubellier's list for the far-right Front National (FN) in the town of Saint-Genis-Laval (population just over 20,000) not far from the city of Lyon.

"I've always been to the right of the political spectrum," she said. "But at the same time I'm not really that politicised," added the woman who also stood at the last local elections for the FN back in 2008.

"I’m really happy to be a candidate because I think I can make a difference. The future isn't bright and I long for a serenity that no longer exists," she continued.

"Marine (Le Pen) is good, but she does not have the same stature as her father (Jean-Marie)," she said, admitting that the founder of the FN had made some errors in the past, but they had "to be excused".

Frantz isn't the oldest candidate seeking election though. That honour goes to a 103-year-old woman in Marseille, according to official statistics published by the interior ministry.

Henriette Frantz and Elise Machado candidates in the French local elections (collage of screenshots from France TV info)

Meanwhile at the other end of the age scale is Elise Machado who'll be standing as a candidate in the village of Le Mémont (population 41) in the département of Doubs in eastern France.

At just 17 years old, Machado is the youngest candidate in this year's local elections, beating the minimum age limit of 18 required to be eligible to stand because...well, her 18th birthday falls on March 22, the day before the first round of voting.

Machado says the decision to stand "represents the first steps in her adult life."

"It doesn't necessarily mean I'm interested in politics which sometimes appears a little 'fuzzy' (sounds as though she's pretty clued up already)," she said.

"What interests me most is to give my opinion on what happens in the village in which I've lived since I was born."

Local elections in France - Sandrine Cocureau, a woman of extremes?

Most political pundits in France will tell you that the upcoming local elections could be marked by voter apathy.

And then there are also the stories circulating of just how difficult it is to get a list together in some places.

But the tale of Sandrine Cocureau bucks both those apparent trends because she appears to be someone desperate to be involved in local politics.

The only problem is, she doesn't seem to know what part of the political spectrum would best suit her.

The 43-year-old's name appeared on the list submitted by the far-right Front National (FN) in the town of Mérignac, a suburb of the city of Bordeaux.

Mairie de Mérignac (source - Wikipedia, author Erdrokan)

Cocureau's name appeared on the list submitted by the far-right Front National's candidate Jean-Luc Aupetit in the town of Mérignac, a suburb of the city of Bordeaux.

"She seemed to express ideas that were totally in keeping with the Front National's philosophy," said Aupetit about the first meeting with Cocureau at a market back in June 2013.

"We talked for a while and she agreed to figure provisionally on the list: a decision she confirmed in December."

All well and good. Except Cocureau didn't stop there.

Because at the same time as she was agreeing to be on the FN's list, she was also accepting to be on that of Guillaume Perchet, the candidate for the far-left Lutte ouvrière (LO)!

"She didn't come to us by chance," claimed Perchet. "She genuinely seemed to want to help the voice of the working class be heard."

Cocureau's rather weird "dual alliance" came to light when both lists were submitted for official scrutiny to the préfecture of the département of Gironde in mid-February.

And, not surprisingly, when it came to light that her name appeared on two lists, both parties withdrew her and quickly found replacements.

"There was no way we could keep her (on our list)," said Aupetit. "She was clearly trying to make a fool of us, perhaps in an attempt to have our candidacy invalidated."

"We decided by mutual agreement not to include her on either list," responded Perchet, suggesting that it might also have been a pre-election "trick" dreamed up by the FN.

Noyon - Not such brotherly love in the French local elections

The local elections (yes, sorry about this, but...) are just under one month away.

And while the attention - well that of the national media at least - might be focused on the battles in France's big cities such as Paris, Marseille and Lyon, there are also some pretty interesting things (honestly guv) going on elsewhere.

Take, for example, what has all the potential to turn into a family feud (actually, it already has) in the northern town of Noyon.

The current mayor - the Socialist party's Patrick Deguise - is seeking re-election. No surprise there perhaps as French politicians at a local level seem to love staying in office for as long as possible.

Besides, Deguise has only had one six-year term in office in Noyon.

But, in an act of very unbrotherly love, the main opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) has found the ideal candidate to oppose Deguise - and quite possibly, in the process, confuse voters.

His older brother, Gérard.

Deguise versus Deguise with the far-right Front National's Michel Guiniot thrown in for good measure to the siblings' strife.

Patrick Deguise (left) and Gérard Deguise (montage of screenshots from Courrier picard interviews, September 2013)

And there's clearly little love lost between the two brothers.

Back in the last local elections (2008) the 66-year-old Deguise (Gérard) was third on the UMP's list for Noyon, a town in which he had been an elected councillor for almost two decades.

But along came 58-year-old Patrick, who had been mayor of a neighbouring village of Pont-l'Evêque, to win a traditionally centre-right town hall and simultaneously earn the wrath of his brother who seemed convinced his own "notoriety" had helped his younger brother woo "confused" voters.

'When you slog your guts out for a town for 19 years and then your brother comes along and effectively 'fires' you, it's impossible to take it well," said Deguise (Gérard).

"We used to be a very united family with definite values, but obviously the job of mayor of Pont-l'Evêque (population 803) wasn't enough for him," he added.

Determined to teach his younger brother a lesson, Gérard has decided to stand not just as a councillor, but also as mayor this time around.

It's a decision which doesn't actually amuse Patrick but rather shows that, as far as he's concerned, his brother has "an inflated ego".

"Gérard is in denial," he said. "He embodies the past and it's now too late for him."

Family get togethers must be somewhat less than fun.

Mind you, it could have been worse.

There was a rumour (unfounded apparently) at one point that another brother, 57-year-old Alain, who used to be a member of the UMP but is now a supporter of (gaullist and souverainist) Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, was thinking about putting together a list.

"Lurn" French with the Front National

Hands up those of you out there who are literally word perfect when it comes to writing.

You never, ever make a mistake of any kind. Your grammar, spelling and the "Eats, shoots and leaves" of punctuation" are all irreproachable.

For those mere mortals among us, all too often errors creep in.

Usually it don't matter none, because others will perhaps not even spot the mistake or, if they do, will be indulgent.

Thankfully for some of us working in fields where it's important to get it right (for fear of giving the wrong impression), there is often a safety net available in the form of a sub-editor or a ruddy good proof reader.

It's a shame - or maybe on second thoughts, perhaps not - that the same cannot be said for the far-right Front National's (FN) candidate in this year's race to be mayor of Paris.

Someone in Wallerand de Saint-Just's team - for that's his name - clearly didn't run the copy for his campaign pledges through spellcheck before sending it off to the printers.

Yes - as an aside - Saint-Just is a man.

Wallerand de Saint-Just (screenshot from YouTube video)

And there you all thought that the race to become the next mayor of Paris was an all-female affair because that's what the (foreign) media has been reporting.

Well it ain't.

Sure both the leading candidates are women.....Anne Hidalgo for the Socialist party and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (NKM) for the centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP).

And the second round slogfest will undoubtedly be between them.

But the first round is not an all-female affair because both the FN with Saint-Just and the Greens with Christophe Najdovski, are putting up male candidates.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, as trivial as it might be in a political world in which image is so important.

You see Saint-Just wants to protect and promote French - the language that is - as part of his campaign.

It's apparently not just a desire to keep at bay all those nasty and devilish foreign (English) words wot keep spoiling la langue de Molière.

No, it's also a wish to promote French, especially in the Paris which "as the country's capital has (paraphrasing) an obligation to show the way."

In other words, Saint-Just wants to "defend" that French language.

Except that's not quite how it came across in the official programme handed out to journalists during a recent press conference.

Because, as you can see from the accompanying screenshot, Saint-Just also appears to be into neoligisms, albeit it cocked-up ones, in wanting to, "défenFre la langue française".

"défenFre" (screenshot from Europe 1 report)

Yes, it's clearly a typo and one which is "understandable given that on a French keyboard the "d" and the "f" are next to each other.

But still it raises a chuckle and is a reminder that in Paris at least, where it doesn't stand any chance of winning, the FN can afford to appear suitably amateurish.

"Confessions" of a former French minister Laurent Wauquiez - well hardly

It's all well and good trying to project an image of "normality" (whatever that might be) but do we really want or need to know the sexual appetites and/or preferences of our elected representatives?

Well former minister and (perhaps) a potentially wannabe - along with many other members of his party, the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) - presidential candidate Laurent Wauquiez, would seem to think so.

Laurent Wauquiez (screenshot "On n'est pas couché" France 2, November 16, 2013)

The 38-year-old member of the National Assembly and (clearly he's not a politician who has a problem with the French habit of holding more than one elected office at a time) mayor of Le Puy-en-Velay has revealed...wait for it...that SHOCK he "likes sex" and HORROR "just like everybody else" has watched YouPorn from time to time.


The "disclosure" - if that's what it can be called - came during his appearance on Thierry Ardisson's "Salut Les Terriens" on Canal + on Saturday evening.

It has to be admitted that Ardisson's question was rather a leading one and came during the far-from-serious segment "Psy" following Wauquiez's party political broadcast on behalf of himself and others belonging to his centre-right "club" La Droite Sociale" whose goal is to "defend the interests of the middle classes."

SALUT LES TERRIENS du 07/12/13 - Part. 2 Avec Jean-Luc Reichmann et Laurent Wauquiez

It was without doubt meant to be a moment of television light entertainment, and we all know how some politicians, especially those with populist ambitions, strive to appear just like Monsieur et Madame Tout le Monde.

Reactions (on Twitter of course) to Wauquiez's "admission" (apologies for all these inverted commas) were mixed with some praising him for his openness while others pompously accused him of "seeking to push the limits of demagogy so far as to ridicule politics" - as if those who practise the métier needed any help.

Still at least Wauquiez answered a question without trying to beat about the proverbial.

Florian Philippot (screenshot FranceTV info)

Look how slithery and almost begrudging another party vice president (Wauquiez is one of several at the UMP) over at the far-right Front National, the very, very bright Florian Philippot was, when asked to comment on  Flora Coquerel's - the newly-crowned Miss France, comments that with a mother who was from Benin, she was "proud to represent a cosmopolitan France".

French politicians and their moments of mendacity - it's all the media's fault

Don't you just love (French) politicians. They're all so honest and sincere, fiercely upstanding in their efforts to represent and serve those who've elected them.

Furthermore, they refuse outright to deceive the public, especially when they're in front of a camera.

What you see or hear when they pop up on your TV screens (and boy, do they pop up) is the Coca Cola "Real Thing", the genuine article.

Cue corny commercial...



Er "Non, mais allô quoi" to quote one of the great French thinkers of our time.

If only.

But it's not their fault at all.

When politicians are caught out apparently trying to use the very same media of which they're often so critical to swing public opinion in their direction they're not to blame.

Rather, it's all the responsibility of the dreaded and dreadful media.

This past week there have been two examples in France which illustrate perfectly just how (some) politicians think the media really is out to "get" them.

First up there was Paul-Marie Coûteaux, founder and president of the Souveraineté, indépendance et libertés (SIEL) movement which has close ties to the far-right Front National (FN).

Paul-Marie Coûteaux (screenshot France 3 debate, May 2013

Indeed Coûteaux, a former member of the European parliament, campaigned for the FN's, Marine Le Pen, in the 2012 French presidential elections and he has joined forces with the her to help recruit new members especially those who might be disillusioned with the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP).

He was also the subject of a report on last weekend's edition of the weekly news magazine  "Le Supplément" on Canal +.

Accompanied by a reporter and a camera team, Coûteaux went off at one point for a working breakfast in Brest where he claimed afterwards he had secured the promise of membership from a prominent local political figure who had been active in the 90s and his wife - both of whom had previously backed the UMP.

Getting back into his car to return to Paris, Coûteaux seemed to forget that he was still hooked up to the microphone  and smugly told his fellow passengers that he had "fooled the journalist by pretending that he had managed to recruit two new high profile members".

There had, as the programme pointed out, been no meeting with former UMP members interested in joining the FN, and Coûteaux had made the whole thing up.

An unrepentant Coûteaux spoke out in defence of his of er...stretching of the truth saying that Canal + had been "out to trap him, that's what the channel was good at and it was all part of (the media) transforming politics into a circus."

http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2013/12/02/01002-20131202ARTFIG00340-fn-piege-sur-canal-couteaux-s-explique-sur-son-mensonge.php

Le Supplément du 01/12/13 - Part.1  Avec Florian Philippot

Of course.

The media was and is to blame for politicians not sticking with the truth and that's the line Le Pen took when she was asked for her reaction.

"I know Paul-Marie and he always tries to do his best," she said.

"He believes he can never do enough and he wanted to prove how much he could do because there were cameras around," she continued.

"And you know, the presence of a camera sometimes makes you say the craziest thing."

Politicians and sincerity 1 - the media 0

Ah yes those cameras. Not only do they apparently make politicians say something that isn't necessarily accurate, they can also make them do what they don't want to.

Just ask - and here for the sake of balance is the second example of how the media is responsible for the lies politicians don't tell -  Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Now Mélenchon probably needs as much of an introduction as (Marine) Le Pen.

During his years in politics the former Socialist party member has been a government minister, a senator, a member of the European parliament and a French presidential candidate.

Right now he's co-president of the Parti de Gauche, (Left party, PG) and all round pain in the backside of (among others) the French president François Hollande.

When there's a demonstration to be led against government policy especially in the fields of social and economic reform, you can bet your bottom centime that somewhere in the crowd (and usually at the head of it) you'll find Mélenchon.

He also has a love-to-hate relationship with the media.

Last weekend Mélenchon was living up to he reputation as a pain in the gluteus maximus with a rally in Paris against "the injustices of tax increases" (well nobody likes having to pay more taxes now, do they?) and, ahead of the official demo, was interviewed "live" by Claire Chazal on TF1's lunchtime news.

And there he stood in front of what appeared to be hundreds of flag-waving supporters, a "fact" that Chazal pointed out when introducing him.

"I just want to correct you Claire," he said. "This is a movement against the tax increases not just supported by my party but by a number of parties from the left of the political spectrum as well as the unions ," he added, seeming to forget momentarily the other mistake Chazal had made and the impression viewers might have had from the camera angle - namely that there was indeed a mass of people behind him.

 

Mélenchon : "La taxe, un impôt du pauvre pour les riches" sur WAT.tv 

Because you see, Stefan de Vries, a correspondent in France for the Dutch channel RTL and a contributor to both France 24 and La Croix, just happened to live across from where the interview was taking place and took a photo of the scene - something TF1 viewers didn't see.

He posted it on the Net and it quickly entered the Twittersphere accompanied by claims that TF1 and Mélenchon had been in cahoots to fool viewers.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon interview TF1 - street scene from Twitter

Mélenchon saw red (naturally), choosing his often preferred method of defence by going on the attack and writing on his blog that he had been asked to take part in what he considered to be a ridiculous interview before the rally began.

"It was just more interesting to have some supporters around rather than appearing in an empty street," he wrote, adding that a member of his party and not the so-called "journalist" had actually taken a photo and posted it on Twitter.

And he didn't stop there, laying into Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) - rant rant rant, Europe 1 - rant rant rant, journalists in general - rant rant rant, the media - rant rant rant, the government - rant rant rant and rant rant rant...

Why choose a dozen or so words when several hundred will do?

In short, Mélenchon considered that he wasn't to blame for anything and it was all the fault of (paraphrasing) the media conspiring with the government to discredit him.

It must be exhausting being so angry with everyone all the time.

Politicians and sincerity 2 - the media 0