Olivier Falorni - well and truly "April Fooled"

Remember Olivier Falorni?

He's the man who, after having received the support of that infamous Tweet from the former first lady Valérie Trierweiler, went on to beat Ségolène Royal, the Socialist party's official candidate for La Rochelle, in the 2012 parliamentary elections.

(screenshot Le Grand Journal, Canal + January 2014)

It was a defeat which stymied Royal's chances of being chosen to be the president of the national assembly and left many wondering whether she would ever make a return to frontline politics.

Meanwhile Falorni took his seat in parliament, joining the group of the Parti Radical de Gauche, (Radical Party of the Left, PRG) rather than that of the ruling Socialist party.

And little or nothing was heard of him in the national media...until last week that is.

Because the 42-year-old was the "victim" of an April Fool: one played on him by the comedian and impersonator, Gérald Dahan.

April 1 was the day the newly-appointed prime minister, Manuel Valls, was busy putting together "his" new government - and an ideal opportunity for Dahan to continue his practice of playing pranks on well-known people (and especially politicians) by ringing them under the guise of being someone else.

He has done it before to the likes of, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Nicolas Sarkozy and, yes, even Royal.

It might not always be particularly clever or amusing, but it invariably reveals more than the butt of the joke might wish to be made public.

And that's exactly what happened on April 1.

Dahan rang Falorni, pretending to be Valls and wanting to know whether the 42-year-old would be interested in a job in the new government.

During the course of the conversation, Falorni disclosed what he (and many others) thought of Royal: how she was "uncontrollable and unpredictable" and how working with her (or under her as a junior minister) would be unthinkable.

But as you can hear from the clip which Yann Barthés and his team at Le Petit Journal on Canal + (inevitably) played on Friday evening's edition, Falorni eventually agreed to accept a position in the government with Royal as his immediate boss.

There are also some delicious behind-the-scenes disclosures from Falorni as to how many of those public alliances between "leading" members of the Socialist party are...well "surprising" to say the least.

Le Petit Journal du 04/04 - Gérald Dahan imite Manuel Valls et piège Olivier Falorni

Former Senate leader Gérard Larcher, and a lesson on how to listen to a political debate - asleep

Bored by politics?

Fed up with the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) trying to justify their past five years in power (well actually more like 10 if the governments of the previous president Jacques Chirac are included with prime ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin 2002-2005 and Dominique de Villepin 2005-2007. Funny how little mention is made of that) admitting to some errors but basically blaming the global economy, immigrants, or the 35-hour working week (among other things) for the country's woes.

Whoa, a sentence without end...spot the influence of French.

Gérard Larcher (screenshot from Des paroles et des actes)

Or the Socialist party accusing the UMP of rightwing tendencies, pandering to a potential far-right Front National electorate and forgetting that running a country isn't the same as running a business; government has a social responsibility too.

Well guess what. You're probably not alone.

Even politicians - well some of them at least - would appear to have had their fill.

Take a look at this clip from Thursday's edition of the excellent Des paroles et des actes on France 2 television.

The prime minister François Fillon was going jaw-to-jaw with the leader of the Socialist party, Martine Aubry.

It was of course, "Yadda, yadda, yadda this" and "Blah, blah, blah, that" as the pair failed to listen to one another, agree on common ground or solutions to problems that were naturally not of their making.

A jolly good time was had by one and all: at home in front of the small screen and in the audience.

But wait a mo'.

Who's that, thankfully not in the front row, but still captured briefly by the cameras at 23 seconds appearing to catch a few moments shut eye.

Could it be?

Surely not!

Yes it is.

None other than Gérard Larcher a high-ranking UMP politician and until October 2011 the president of the Senate.

Oops.

Bored? Tired? Dozing? Texting? Consulting notes?

Whatever the case, he couldn't have been paying attention. Or could he?

Zzzzzzzzz.


http://dai.ly/wtoPM3


Gérard Larcher s'endort dans le public de "Des... par puremedias