Mind your political language - French style

Choice words from two leading lights of France's opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) over the past couple of days.

One a former president of the party - and the country come to that.

The other currently holding the top job within the party after winning that infamous battle last year, and perhaps just a little too keen on following his predecessor's political example...in more senses than one apparently.

No prizes for guessing who the true blue pair are: Nicolas Sarkozy and Jean-François Copé.

Jean-François Cope in Nimes (screenshot from TF1 report)

Sarkozy is off to Las Vegas this week.

No he's not going to play the slots.

Rather he has been invited to address the SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference, a high level gab fest organised by the New York based investment fund and "committed to facilitating balanced discussions and debates on macro-economic trends, geo-political events and alternative investment opportunities within the context of a dynamic global economy" and allowing its international attendees to "to connect with global leaders and network with industry peers."

Sounds like fun.

At least he'll be moving and shaking it with the very "best".

But before Sarkozy left, he had a few things to say to those closest to him, if a piece which the national daily Aujuourd'hui en France-Le Parisien has entitled "The warm up for Sarkozy in Las Vegas" is to believed, about the state of the country and the performance of some French politicians.

Not without surprise Sarkozy describes the current French president, François Hollande, as "crap".

"The socialist government is collapsing in on itself and I am extremely worried," Sarkozy reportedly told his confidants who seemed only to happy to "share" them with the paper.

And he was also amazed that the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, admitted a couple of months ago that one of his (junior) ministers, Arnaud Montebourg, had insulted him over the 'phone with his...pardon the French..."Tu fais chier la terre entière avec ton aéroport de Notre-Dame-des-Landes, tu gères la France comme le conseil municipal de Nantes."

More evidence for Sarkozy that Hollande was simply "lacking authority".

Speaking of prime ministers, Sarkozy had less than tender words for François Fillon, the man he views as having been his "employee" during his five years in office.

"C'est un Loser," he said.

How charmingly refreshing from the man who made the expression "Casse-toi, pauv' con !" internationally famous back in 2008 and apparently still thinks perhaps he'll be "obliged to return".




He clearly hasn't lost his touch.

So what's Copé up to?

Well it looks as though he has been reaching for the same thesaurus to find suitably evocative expressions with which to get his point across.

Speaking to the party faithful in the French city of Nimes on Monday to mark the occasion of what he liked to refer to as "the anniversary of Hollande's failure" since taking office, Copé offered a word of advice in between a generous sprinkling of "cons" including the newly-coined prediction of a "printemps des cons".

"Il faut arrêter d'emmerder les français," he said.

Ah politics. Such a rich and varied language all of its own.

Frenchman fails in bid to become Las Vegas mayor

It was so nearly the sort or stuff that the American Dream is made of; a Frenchman bidding to become mayor of a major US city.

But in spite of spending millions of his own personal fortune, 69-year-old Victor Chaltiel failed to make it past Tuesday's primary to find a successor to the incumbent mayor, Oscar Goodman, finishing fourth with 14 per cent of the vote.

Victor Chaltiel (screenshot from TV spot)

Voters chose Goodman's wife, Carolyn and a Clark County Commissioner, Chris Giunchigliani, will to head-to-head in June's run-off.

He's not an Englishman in New York but a Frenchman in Las Vegas, and Victor Chaltiel wanted to be mayor of Las Vegas.

The self-made businessman arrived in the States almost 40 years ago, but from the way he speaks you wouldn't know it.

His accent is - to say the very least - almost the caricature of a Frenchman speaking English.

Indeed even Chaltiel had doubts about how he would come across when he first considered standing. But he brushed them aside on the advice of a friend.

"At first I thought my accent would be an obstacle," he told Agence France Presse.

"But an American friend reassured me. He said, 'Victor, let me ask you a question. In all your 38 years in the United States, has your accent ever prevented you from succeeding and making your fortune?' Never. I responded. 'There you go,' he replied. 'You have your response'."

As the French national radio station Europe 1 reported, Chaltiel was virtually unknown when he entered the race and financed his campaign using the personal fortune he has accumulated over the years - to the tune of $1.4 million.

Television spots stressed his experience as a "businessman rather than a politician" and that unlike "professional" politicians, unwilling or unable to give up all the trappings that go with elected office, Chaltiel was willing and able to finance his own campaign himself and to be governed by a businessman would change everything for Las Vegas residents.

"I speak differently, I think differently, I work differently," he said in one spot, emphasising that over the years he had helped build businesses and create jobs.

"We are all different, but we all have one thing in common. We all want to see our city shine again."

Voters though didn't quite see thing that same way as Chaltiel, and in the end plumped for what they knew best in the shape of Goodman and Giunchigliani.

In spite of that, one thing's for sure though, Chaltiel's hand-kissing, heavily accented presence brought more than a smile to many on both sides of the Pond - and who knows, perhaps he'll try again.

France's Rolex-wearing "Ferrari priest" is a free man

Antoine Videau was a bad man; a very, very bad man. But he won't be returning to prison.

Antoine Videau (screenshot from video on Corse Matin report)

As the regional daily Corse Matin reports, the 64-year-old, who was convicted last year of embezzlement, had his sentence reduced on Wednesday by an appeals court and is now effectively a "free man".

In place of the original three years with one year suspended, the man who has been variously dubbed the "Ferrari priest" or the "Rolex priest" in the French media has now been given two years with 16 months suspended.

As he has already served eight months, he will not be returning behind bars.

But the court also ruled that he still had to pay €1.3 million in compensation and put him on probation for three years.

For over 20 years the former priest on the island of Corsica had embezzled more than two million euros and, as the national daily France Soir writes, obviously believed that, "Charity begins with oneself."

Videau had been responsible for managing church property, and when he appeared in court last year, it became evident of just how well he had been doing his job - for his own benefit.

He had cashed in cheques from parishioners, pocketed revenue from a convent on the island which had been converted into a Chambre d'hôtes (bed and breakfast) and diverted funds from the will of an archbishop who died in 1998 and for whom he was the executor into the 28 bank accounts he held on the island nicknamed the Île de Beauté and the Côte d’Azur.

As well as proudly wearing a Rolex, he wasn't averse to turning up at Mass driving a (different) sports car and perhaps most famously organised a "cultural trip" to Las Vegas.

Speaking after Wednesday's ruling Videau's lawyer said the gap between the two decisions had given the courts time to "take measure more accurately the allegations made against his client."

"After the commotion that accompanied the original trial, this hearing was much calmer," Jean-Michel Marriagi told reporters.

"But the civil claims (for compensation) are excessive and don't respect certain rules so there will most certainly be an appeal in the court of cassation."

Hmmmn.