Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo's lack of brolly etiquette

You don't need to be "into" royalty, but there is such a thing as good manners, especially when playing host to a head of state (and it matters little, that it's a non-elected one).

Somehow though, for just the briefest of moments, François Hollande and the recently-elected mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, seemed to forget theirs (manners that is) during Queen Elizabeth II's three-day state visit of France last week to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Their collective faux pas (let's keep this French) happened at the end of the visit as Hollande and Hidalgo accompanied their guest to the flower market in the capital's IV arrondissement to a ceremony at which it would be renamed in her honour "Marche aux Fleurs - Reine Elizabeth II"

(screenshot i>Télé)

There was just the slightest of drizzles in the air as the trio made their way on foot to the flower market.

Hollande, well used to the rain (who can forget how the heavens opened to "rain on his parade" just after he had been inaugurated president back in May 2012) didn't blink twice as a few drops fell.

And the Queen, clearly a hardy soul and always prepared, simply opened (or had it opened for her) a modest but clearly regal personal transparent umbrella (so that "one" could best be seen by the adoring crowds presumably).

Hidalgo though was having none of it and instead was accompanied by a "factotum" carrying the largest black brolly covering...well, just her really (click on this link to see the photo).

Of course in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that important and certainly far from being dramatic but for the French weekly news magazine Le Point, it "spoke volumes about the characters involved."

"It's hard to believe your eyes," went the rather tongue-in-cheek piece.

"Elizabeth II, 88-year-old sovereign for 62 years, holding her own umbrella while Anne Hidalgo, not yet 55 years old and mayor for just over two months has someone else holding hers....Shocking!"

(screenshot BFM TV report

Elizabeth II, reine du marché aux fleurs - Le 07/06/2014 à 15h30

French Socialist party leader Harlem Désir calls Jean-François Copé's bluff over party campaign finances

Jean-François Copé, the leader of the opposition centre-right Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement) went on the "counter attack" on Monday.

He cancelled a morning interview with one of France's toughest radio and TV journalists, Jean-Jacques Bourdin and instead concentrated on his "solemn declaration" that he would deliver later in the day to answer allegations published in the weekly news magazine Le Point that smacked of political cronyism and financial corruption.

Jean-François Copé delivers his "solemn declaration" (screenshot BFM TV)

In its most recent issue, the magazine maintained that Copé had been partly responsible for "ruining the party's finances" during Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 presidential campaign by channelling party funds to communications companies run by some of his (Copé's) friends.

Those companies, said Le Point, had charged inflated prices of 20 to 100 per cent more than the "going rate".

So how did Copé answer those accusations?

Well, he didn't.

Instead he offered up the sob story of a man who had become the victim of a "public lynching", a "man hunt" a "plot to discredit him" and of "journalism worthy of the Inquisition."

He would "sue Le Point" and in a wonderful turnaround from the man who was had been against the government's introduction of a law (after the so-called Cahuzac affair) requiring first ministers and then all parliamentarians to "declare all their assets", Copé now insisted that his party would "open all its accounts to public inspection if other parties agreed to do the same".

What's more he would introduce a parliamentary bill later this year to make it a legal requirement for all political parties.

Er hello?

Isn't there already a law on the books requiring French political parties to be accountable for their spending and funding especially if they qualify for state subsidies (ie: having some of their election expenses reimbursed)?

Yes there is.

So Copé's bill would be a pointless exercise.

Besides, the Socialist party is ready to call his bluff with its leader, Harlem Désir, saying on Tuesday that his party would be "more than happy to make its accounting details public."

"There's no need for a law," he said. "It's just a question of 'wanting to do it'," he continued.

"We're more than happy to make it easier for M Copé and the UMP to be more transparent by allowing journalists access to our detailed public accounts."

A prime ministerial week in French politics - present, past and...er...future?

Bienvenue! to another look back at a week in French politics and as you can see from the title, the focus this time around is on prime ministers.

Before plunging head first into the "news" though, a few words on the position itself.

It's an odd sort of role in France because it's the president who gets to appoint (and sack) the person he thinks is the best man (or on one occasion, woman) for the job.

He (or she) has to come from the majority party in parliament . That's why there have been three periods of so-called "cohabitation" since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958 when the prime minister and president have come from different parties.

But the position doesn't have to go to the leader of the majority party.

Had that been the case after the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, François Hollande would have chosen Martine Aubry to be prime minister.

Perish the thought!

In fact, rare though it might be, the job doesn't even have to be given to an elected representative.

During his second term as president, for example, Jacques Chirac appointed career diplomat Dominique de Villepin as prime minister for two years.

Sometimes viewed as playing second fiddle to the president, the holder of the office of prime minister is (quoting from the constitution here) charged with "directing the actions of the government, being responsible for national defence and ensuring the implementation of legislation."

And oh yes, if you happen to be Jean-Marc Ayrault, practising the art of the Coué method.

Which brings us nicely to the end of the potted (with cavernous gaps admittedly) overview and allows us to get cracking with the news.

Where better to start (although you could probably think of one) than with Ayrault himself.

In an interview with the regional daily Presse-Océan - which just happens to cover the city of Nantes, where he was mayor for 23 years (ah, can't you just hear the echoes of Arnaud Montebourg's cutting comment that Ayrault "ran the country as though it were a local council"?) the prime minister was in...well...almost "Spice Boy" mode.

Yes, he seemed to have taken a little too literally the lyrics of Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty's 1997 hit "Spice up your life" with an "all you need is positivity" approach.

"There are positive signs that the economy is recovering," he told the paper.

"And we must do everything we can to encourage it because our priority has to be employment."

Oh change the record M. Ayrault.

Speaking of which, do you fancy some music?

No?

Tough.



Ah. That's better. Don't you all feel full of "positivity" now?

Well you'll need to if you're going to understand what's happening with the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP).

It managed to spend the first part of the week tying itself into knots over which political direction it would or wouldn't take rather than fulfilling its role as a credible opposition.

François Fillon (screenshot BFM TV report)

And it was all down to François Fillon, Ayrault's predecessor at the Matignon.

He dropped a bit of a bombshell at the weekend saying that in next year's municipal elections, UMP supporters should vote for the "least sectarian" candidate in the second round if the party's candidate didn't make it through and it came to a straight run-off between the far-right Front National and the Socialist party.

Yikes!

What the heck was he saying?

Break with the party's policy of urging supporters to vote for neither or was he actually shifting his position?

Nobody really seemed to know and the party went into headless chicken mode as its leaders assembled to clarify policy - all agreeing that the "neither nor" strategy was the one to be followed.

Fillon even appeared in front of the cameras afterwards to repeat that he had "always been against an alliance of any sort with the FN and it had been something he had fought against all his political life" and "he had no intention of changing his position."


Fillon: "j'ai toujours combattu les alliances... par BFMTV

So. What was he up to?

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the grass roots support there is among UMP party  members for some of the FN's policies.

As revealed in a poll at the beginning of the week, over 70 per cent "agreed" with what Fillon had apparently said and were in favour of the FN being considered as a "normal" party.

Also, let's not forget that Fillon is campaigning to be his party's candidate in the 2017 presidential election.

By creating a "buzz", he had not only proven himself a little less colourless than some might have thought, but had made life a little more difficult for the party's leader, Jean-François Copé.

Yes, Fillon looks set to continue with his operation "Stir everything up" for the next...three years.

Wonderful!

So that's present and past dealt with. What about the future?

Well, there was bad news of sorts for the man tipped by many (including himself) to be a future prime minister (president and master of the universe), Manuel Valls.

The interior minister is no longer the country's favourite politician.

In the monthly (yes, these things really are produced that frequently) poll Ipsos conducts for Le Point on political popularity (rather like a hit parade but without the moo-sick) Alain Juppé (a past, past prime minister among many other things) ranked Number One with a song taken from his most recent album "I'm really the man who should be president but I prefer sitting on the sidelines and appearing all statesman-like".

Valls meanwhile, who had been Top of the Pops since October 2012, slipped a place without blowing so much as a gasket.

Now, if, for some peculiar reason, you would like to follow the progression (or otherwise) of your (least) favourite French politician from month to month, you can check out the baromètre de l'action politique Ipsos / Le Point here.

And finally - because it's just too difficult to resist - François Hollande's interview on TF1 with Claire Chazal...as interpreted by those folk over at Les Guignols de l'Info over at Canal +.

screenshot from Les Guignols video

Take the recent chart-topping hit single (yes music has been rather a laboured leitmotif during this piece) "Papaoutai" (Friday's French music break a couple of weeks ago) from Belgian singer-songwriter Stromae, fiddle with the lyrics and put them in the mouth of Hollande's puppet et...voilà "Emploioutai"

EMPLOIOUTAI ? Le tube du quinquennat - Les Guignols du 16/09

And that seems a suitable point at which to wish you a great weekend.

A week in French politics: hard hats and handbags at dawn

They might be on holiday, but there's no getting away from the men and women (politicians) who run  France (or would like to us to think that's what they're doing).

And for your edification, dear reader, here is this week's subjective top choices from the wonderful world of French politics.

If you've been watching the (French) news this week on the telly or listening to it on the radio then, among a domestic schedule dominated by the weather, travel conditions and places to visit, you might have heard about "pénibilité du travail".

Don't yawn (as someone did when I hinted I might be tackling the subject). After all, for those who live and work in France, pensions, of which pénibilité is a part (according to the current government) are a matter of future concern.

"Pénibilité" is a word French politicians love using to define those jobs that at one time were considered particularly arduous.

And even though in some cases working conditions may have changed (where are the men shovelling coal on the steam locomotives?) the special retirement provisions to those working in sectors still defined as "pénible" remain as an untouchable in the country's complex pensions system

Anyway the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, fresh from his seven-day break, has been doing his bit for the country this week.

He has been continuing the PR exercise begun by François Hollande who stepped out of the limelight following his week-long whistle stop Tour de France passing the mantle to his prime minister.

And just to prove he was more than up to the job, Ayrault even donned a hard hat and Gaultier-inspired (you wish) uniform as he dragged social affairs minister Marisol Touraine and employment minister Michel Sapin along for an early Tuesday morning photo-op at the building site for a new tramway in the département of Yvelines.

Don't they all look so happy?

Eat your heart out Jean-Paul Gaultier, here come the government Hard Hats
Michel Sapin (left), Jean-Marc Ayrault (centre) and Marisol Touraine
(screenshot France Télévisions)

Top of the agenda during what had been billed as Ayrault's week, was meant to be (until a political flexing of muscles between two  government ministers pushed it off the front page - more on that in a moment) "pénibilité du travail" with the prime minister insisting that it has never really been addressed in previous (and there have been many) pension reforms.

It's all still in the "being mulled over stage", but the idea of how some sort of points system awarded to those working in jobs considered "pénible" would translate into pension rights is...well...to put it simply, not.

Simple that is.

In fact the very concept is probably enough to make even the bravest economist break down in tears of frustration.

But it's something being considered (with just about any and everything else you can imagine) as the government tries to put together a pension reform plan (yes, another one) which it hopes will please everyone but you kind of already know will just end up making a confused situation even more bewildering.

One to watch - perhaps.

Another one to watch is the eventual outcome of the "handbags at dawn" moment between two of the government's big hitters - the interior minister Manuel Valls and the justice minister Christine Taubira.

The opening shots were fired in what the media (and the opposition probably) is hoping will be a "declared war" when Le Monde published details of a "private" letter sent by Valls to Hollande telling him how Taubira should be doing her job (paraphrasing here).

Hollande, not a happy bunny to see two of his top ministers disagreeing so publicly, kept his head down (after all he was supposed to be on his hols) and let Ayrault handle the situation...which he duly did in his own inimitable style...by doing nothing.

Finally - and just to show how "pénible" (aren't you impressed at how rounded this piece is turning out to be?) a French politician's job can be, a little light relief.

It has to be said though, that "comedy" was probably not on the mind of the centre-right l'Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) parliamentarian, Henri Guaino, when he came up with his classic complaint at the beginning of the week.

Guaino, the speechwriter and special advisor to the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been a member of parliament for all of five minutes...

Oh all right then since June 2012.

The poor man obviously thinks he (and other members of the National Assembly) need better treatment - not for when they're retired mind you, but right now.

Parliamentarians are "very poorly paid," he said in an interview with a weekly magazine. "We work in deplorable conditions."

Add as many exclamation marks as you like to both of those preposterous statements.

Oh dear, oh dear. Guaino is obviously struggling on the €5, 148 net a month complemented by monthly expenses of up to €5,770 brut and then up to another €9,000 per month to recruit staff (their spouses?), pay for offices and a whole host of other goodies listed on the National Assembly's official site.



Anybody feel like starting a whip round for Guaino and co?

No?

Oh well.

Continued Happy hols and roll on the parliamentary rentrée (although we have each of the main parties summer conferences to look forward to next...that's if the heavily indebted UMP - cheekily and cleverly dubbed Union pour un mouvement pauvre by the weekly news magazine Le Point) can afford one.

François Hollande's approval ratings fall again

The French love their polls.

Er...perhaps that should read the French media loves commissioning polls for readers and viewers.

There are certainly enough published week after week.

And if you believe them - because they're always right, aren't they - the French president, François Hollande isn't exactly what you would call popular at the moment.

Back in February, Hollande's approval ratings fell to just 30 percent, making him "the least popular president for 30 years".

Although those commissioning that particular poll (Le Figaro magazine) and interpreting the figures (Britain's Daily Telegraph) can hardly be said to be among the most pro-Hollande newspapers, the trend is one that has been repeated month after month since he came to power in May 2012.

And the latest poll, this time commissioned by Le Nouvel Observateur - the left-leaning weekly news magazine sometimes described as "the French intellectuals' parish magazine"-  puts those approval ratings even lower - 26 percent.

Not even a recent "charm offensive" as Hollande attempted to "meet and greet" and "press the flesh" in a mini-series of tours around the country, seem to have convinced the French that he really is the man they can trust to see them through the economic difficulties.

And his cause will not have been helped by the most recent front covers of three different weekly magazines to hit the news stands.

Each of them - in their own way - perhaps more cruel than the next and surely illustrating a real disaffection within much of the French media as to Hollande's leadership abilities.

L'Express went with a capitalised "Monsieur Faible". Le Point used Hollande's apparent nickname among Elysée staff to ask whether "'Pépère' est-il à l'hauteur?" while the slightly more "glossy" VSD chose "Hollande l'homme qui n'en savait jamais rien".



It cannot get any worse.

Or can it?

"Leave me alone," says Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Ah. We've all missed him, haven't we?

Who?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn of course.

Since his alleged "philandering" (to put in mildly) in that infamous Sofitel suite in New York back in May 2011, the former head of the International Monetary Fund has only given one interview.

That was with the clearly uncomfortable TF1 news anchor Claire Chazal in September last year when DSK gave a table-thumping performance while brandishing a document "proving" his innocence but also having the temerity to admit he had made a "moral error" - whatever that was supposed to mean.



Since then of course there have been further accusations, such as those of writer and journalist Tristane Banon and investigations into his involvement in hotel sex parties with prostitutes in the northern city of Lille.

His long-suffering and very deep-pocketed wife Anne Sinclair has flown the coop, and the man to whom France must be eternally grateful for the arrival of the gormlessly presidential normal one in office (François Hollande, in case you were wondering), has kept as low a profile as possible given the circumstances.

But now the man the French "affectionately" (really?) refer to as DSK is back - sort of - with an exclusive and all-revealing five-page interview in the weekly news magazine Le Point.

Actually it's not - revealing that is.

Much of what DSK actually tells the magazine has been heard or said before with the exception perhaps that, in almost Greta Garbo-style, DSK launches a plea for the media to leave him alone.

Reach for your handkerchieves everyone as you read the following (paraphrased) extract.

"I no longer play any sort of official public role. I'm not a candidate for anything and I have never been convicted either in this country or any other," he tells Le Point.

"Therefore there's really no reason why the media should be so interested in me and to such an extent it has become almost like a manhunt," he continues, disingenuously to say the least.

"I can no longer stand the fact that the media seems to have given itself the 'right' to violate my privacy in the way it has, just because there have been false allegations made against me and judicial investigations launched.

"I just want to be left alone!"

And yadda yadda yadda.

DSK is probably not the only one - that wishes he would be left alone, that is.

The less coverage, the better.

But just in case you can't get enough and want a great pre-bedtime read with your Horlicks, rush out now to the newsagents to secure your copy of this week's Le Point.

François Hollande, back from hols and time for work - finally

The French president François Hollande is back from his summer break all bronzed and ready to get cracking with affairs of state.

Er. Hello? Isn't there something wrong with that?

François Hollande and Valérie Trierweiler  - end of summer hols. Nice tan (screenshot Var Matin)

Unemployment, economic recession, the problems in the Eurozone, Syria - all trifling concerns of government which could be put on hold, it would appear, while Hollande, sunned himself in the south of France for three weeks.

Oops, 18 days to be precise. Mustn't exaggerate now.

Those are points driven home not only in Tuesday's edition of Libération with a headline that reads as though it's taken straight from Le Figaro "L'été très moyen de françois Hollande", but also by a piece in this week's Le Point by Hervé Gattegno.

"Where else would a 'normal' employee begin a job at the beginning of May and be automatically entitled to three weeks holiday in August," asks Gattegno in his piece entitled "Hollande was on holiday for too long."

Gattegno surely has a point.

Sure he's now calling his ministers in and having detailed head-to-heads with them about how to tackle the recession (what recession?), economic hardship at home and throughout Europe, what to do about Syria, the Roma, violence and security in France and the list goes on.

But shouldn't he have been doing exactly that - or at have least given the appearance of doing so - already?

In an interview with Le Journal de Dimanche last weekend, Jean-Luc Mélenchon characterised (or rather caricatured) Hollande's first 100 days in office as "100 days of almost nothing."

Gattegno says Mélenchon was, in his usual style, exaggerating but there's also the uncomfortable feeling - even among those to the Left - that there might be some substance in what he says, and a potential sign of things not to come.

The article in Libération, a paper that is not shy in its support of the Socialist party, is surely evidence in itself that some on the Left are questioning Hollande's tactics - or lack thereof.

Hollande might want to be demonstrating that he's not as omnipresent as his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, but isn't he taking delegation perhaps a little too far and appearing almost absent?

If he carries on at this rate his five year mandate will come to resemble those of Jacques Chirac's second term in office - a time when French politics stood still while the world moved on.

François Hollande, a "normal" president - what's that?

"Normal" - it's a word that was heard a lot during the run-up to this year's presidential elections in France: François Hollande's proclaimed desire to be a "normal" president or at least introduce an air of "normalcy" into the role.

Fine perhaps as a campaign slogan, but now he's in office is it a realistic possibility?

Come to that, what the heck is "normal"? Is it even possible for the president of any country - let alone France - to be regarded as such? And is it really something to which a political leader should aspire?

Take a look at the non-exhaustive list of synonyms for "normal"; ordinary, average, typical, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road, conventional, mainstream, unremarkable, unexceptional...the list goes on.

Yep, that's exactly what the French and the rest of the world needs. Blandness personified.

Of course Hollande probably means being in touch with the folk, a man of the people, uniting the French and not alienating them, behaving decently, breaking with the excesses and extravagences often associated with the office of president - in fact anything and everything his predecessor wasn't in terms of actions and comportment.

That has to be a good thing. It's honorable and admirable.

But he's the president now, and there's nothing "normal" about the office. It's one the French have traditionally regarded with a certain reverence and his role is perhaps that of a democratically-elected monarch with real political power.

He meets other world leaders, takes decisions that will effect our lives, sets the political agenda for the country,...heck he's the flippin' leader.

Sure, it was endearing to see him getting drenched in the ceremonies immediately following his investiture as he brought a certain dignity to the proceedings, and that photo' on the cover of this week's edition of Le Point raises a smile.

He's human in the way the rest of us are.

But come on François, enough already with the "normal". Stop trying to pull the proverbial wool over our eyes and assume what it is you have become - M. le Président.

CNN reports from G20 in Cannes - Spain!

All right a question to all Americans reading this.

How good is your knowledge of European geography?

Hopefully a little (or should that be a lot) better than someone over at CNN, the US cable news channel with of course its well-known international counterpart.

The channel has deployed, what the French weekly news magazine Le Point calls, "its usual army of journalists and technicians" to cover the G20 summit.

You know, the talkathon currently taking place in Cannes - hosted by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy with guest of honour his US counterpart Barack Obama.

The two men are to appear in a 15-minute pre-recorded interview on prime time news in France on Friday evening - apparently more than enough time to cover all the world's issues and any questions on re-election they might both face next year. But that's an aside.

Er - so where were we? Oh yes - G20 summit, Cannes on the French Riviera and ergo in France...well not quite it appears.

Because someone back home at CNN HQ responsible for putting together world maps managed to place the city, world famous for its annual film festival, not just several hundred kilometres away but in a completely different country - Spain to be precise.

Now we all know that Americans can have a rather - how to put this politely? - tainted view of the world, geographically speaking but really!

The blunder didn't go unnoticed on the Net of course with comments ranging from "CNN exclusive - northern Spain has been ceded to France" to the suggestion that "when the US invades Iran, best make sure that CNN are not embedded with the military."

Click here to see one of many images of CNN's latest take on European geography.

Sarkozy is "Leading the crusade" in Libya says French interior minister

Whatever was France's interior minister Claude Guéant thinking about when he said during an interview on Monday of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy's role in Libya that, "Fortunately, the president has been leading the crusade to mobilise the UN security council, the Arab League and the African Union."

France's interior minister Claude Guéant (screenshot from interview)

Yes "crusade". That's the term he used. Not exactly one lacking historical connotations as many in France have been quick to point out.

Even though he has since admitted that, "With hindsight I should have expressed myself differently and said perhaps that the president had 'mobilised public opinion to present persuading arguments to the security council'," the damage had been done and the word was out there for all to read and hear.

"Scary," is how the leader of the opposition Socialist party Martine Aubry described Guéant's choice of word.

"He would have done better to have kept quiet," said Aubry's predecessor and likely candidate for the party's presidential primaries, François Hollande.

"It was more than unfortunate, it was a word he shouldn't have uttered."

Even some within his party, the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement,UMP) were hard-pressed to defend Guéant's choice of word with the foreign minister Alain Juppé describing it quite clearly as a "blunder" and "one that had nothing to do with what was happening (in Libya)."

But was it really just an "unfortunate" term and an example of a man not used to the political limelight. Or is there something more sinister going on?

At face value Guéant certainly appears to be "like a bull in a china shop," as Le Point journalist Anna Cabana described the interior minister during her piece on national public radio France Inter on Wednesday morning.

Less than a month into the job and he has already managed to tell the country not only that Sarkozy has "led the crusade" but also that the "French don't feel at home in France".

Guéant though is no political beginner as Cabana makes clear. He has served for the past nine years as one of Sarkozy's closest political advisors and his views and thoughts must be well known to the French president.

Sure he has now stepped out of the shadows and is busy proving himself to be every bit as crass in his statements as his predecessor in the job and another Sarkozy crony, Brice Hortefeux (whose 2009 racial slur against Amine Benalia-Brouch, a young party activist of Algerian origin, still sticks in the craw).

But is this really just inexperience at play or a deliberate strategy by Sarkozy in the run-up to next year's presidential elections.

Has Guéant in fact been placed intentionally in the hot seat to try to appeal to voters who might otherwise drift towards the far-right Front National.

Remember its leader, Marine Le Pen, is currently buoyed by opinion polls that show her as a serious threat to Sarkozy's chances of making it through to the second round of voting in those elections.

Can Guéant really be the fool his statements appear to suggest. Is he just naïve when it comes to being in the public eye?

Watch this space for answers.

At this rate Guéant is not going to leave it blank for very long.

Remembering the victims of Air France flight 447

A memorial service will be held in Paris on Tuesday for families of those who died in the Air France flight 447 crash last year.

It'll take place at the Parc Floral in the French capital and will be followed by the inauguration of a monument at the Père Lachaise cemetery

The commemorations will be private and reserved for the families of the 216 passengers and 12 crew members who died exactly a year ago when the Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

But on the first anniversary of what was the worst accident in the airline's history, those whose loved ones perished are frustrated that so little progress has been made in determining the cause of the accident.

As the weekly news magazine Le Point says, the families looking for explanations are "caught in game of ping pong between different hypotheses; from Air France for example whose objective is to show that there was a fault in the design or construction of the aircraft (an Airbus A330-200 ) to Airbus which has suggested that the pilots were poorly trained or the 'plane poorly maintained."

"The assumptions," says Le Point "outnumber the certainties."

For Alain Jakubowicz, one of the lawyers representing the families, there has been a general unwillingness on the part of the investigating authorities to want to shed light on what really happened.

"In two of the reports released by the Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA, the French government agency responsible for investigating aviation accidents) there's no analysis of the autopsies carried out on the bodies that have been recovered," he's quoted as saying in another weekly news magazine L'Express.

"Investigators also downplay the role of the 'planes (speed) sensors," he added.

"Is there really any evidence that there's a desire by the investigators to provide information about the drama?"

It's that apparent lack of transparency which is most frustrating for many of the families according to Françoise Fouquet who lost her daughter and son-in-law in the accident.

"Everybody wants to know the truth and nobody can afford the luxury of not knowing," she told reporters on the eve of Tuesday's commemorations.

"The memory remains a nightmare and I have the impression that the suffering (of those who lost loved ones) has increased since the accident."

World War II "armistice" - French ignorance or error?

Is the decision by the press office of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to use the word "armistice" in its description of the ceremony marking the end of World War II hostilities in Europe a question of ignorance of history or political correctness?

That's the question that has been posed by some sectors of the media here this week after the services of the Elysée palace, the French president's office, sent out what it called "a message" to journalists informing them of "The 65th Anniversary of the Armistice of 1945" to be held in the eastern French town of Colmar next weekend.

Elysée palace (from Wikipedia)

May 8 is Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) marking the date when the Allies formally accepted Germany's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II.

It's a national holiday in many parts of Europe and in France there'll be ceremonies up and down the country including the one at which Nicolas Sarkozy will be present.

But for the second year in a row the office of the Elysée palace has decided to use the term "armistice" rather than "capitulation" or "surrender" in describing the ceremony.

And that's a mistake, as far as the French weekly news magazine Le Point is concerned.

"The Armistice of May 8 1945 never existed," it says. "It was an unconditional surrender that occurred in two stages."

A point also taken up by the left-of-centre news weekly Marianne, which digs deeper into history, consults definitions of "capitulation", "surrender" and "armistice" and comes to the conclusion that either the whole affair illustrates a lack of knowledge of history on the part of the Elysée or it's an attempt to rewrite the history books.

"Such a confusion of the terms is understandable, if inaccurate, among Internet users, but not by those working closely with the French president," it says.

"Are the services of the Elysée totally ignorant?' it asks. "Or are they attempting to be 'politically correct' and trying to soften a painful part of the Europe's recent history?"

To get to the bottom of the matter the daily free newspaper 20 minutes contacted the Elysée directly to be told that the so-called "message" was "not an official press release nor an invitation, but simply a reminder of the upcoming event."

Perhaps not the most convincing explanation of the intent behind the use of the word "armistice", but the one with which it looks as though the the French media will have to be content.

DSK with "the wind in his sails"

This Thursday's issue of the weekly French news magazine, Le Point, should make interesting reading for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he's most commonly known here, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Because even though his job means he's currently based in Washington away from the cut and thrust of the domestic political scene, and his tenure there doesn't officially end until 2012, DSK has now become this country's most popular politician.

In the latest poll - yes you might remember how keen the French are on them - conducted by Ispsos on behalf of the magazine, DSK ranks first "dethroning" the former favourite the junior sports ministers Rama Yade who drops to third, and ahead of the ever-popular foreign minister Bernard Kouchner who takes second spot.

It was perhaps only a matter of time that Yade, who has held the top spot for the past five months, should slip in the ratings, after all she hasn't really been making the headlines recently for reasons controversial or otherwise.

But DSK's rise which led Le Point to describe him as having the "wind in his sails" surely keeps alive both interest about a potential presidential run in the 2012 elections, and speculation that he will at least throw his hat into the ring to be the Socialist party's candidate in the race for office.

Remember DSK's every appearance in France, be it in his official capacity or on a private visit, is closely followed - by the media at least.

Even though he made every effort to avoid the subject for example in a televised appearance on the evening news magazine "Le Grand Journal" on Canal + back in November, it just wouldn't go away.

And the latest figures will undoubtedly keep his (and probably many other people's) hopes well and truly alive.

What they indicate, apart from the fact that it's the first time DSK tops the rankings, is that he's popular across the political spectrum. Among those from his own Socialist party he has an approval rating of 63 per cent - no surprise there perhaps.

But should he decide to take a look at what supporters of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP), think of him, he'll undoubtedly be pleasantly surprised as among them he has a 68 per cent approval rating.

All right so "agreed" opinion polls are of course never to be fully believed and can be interpreted in any way you might wish. And they don't in any way give the full picture.

But this latest one will surely keep the story of "DSK and the 2012 presidential election" well and truly alive - at least among pollsters and the media.

Just for the record, the current incumbent of the job in which DSK refuses to express a personal or professional interest (ahem), Nicolas Sarkozy, fares just as he did last month with a 38 per cent approval rating - an occupational hazard of High Office perhaps.

To be continued...

Strauss-Kahn's loo chinwag with Sarkozy

All right, so let's end the week with the news to end all news, as reported "exclusively" (and then picked up by other French media outlets) in the weekly magazine, Le Point.

It involves the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK): the two men who could just go head-to-head in the race for this country's presidency in 2012.

The story dates back to September this year during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh when Strauss-Kahn reportedly took Sarkozy to task while the two men were taking a loo break.

Yes, even the powerful need to make a trip to the restroom now and again.

And DSK was nothing if not candid, telling the French president that he was fed up with the repeated gossip about his private life.

"I'm sick and tired of it," he said. "And especially the supposed files and photos that could be used against me," he continued.

"I know the source is the Elysée (the president's official office), so tell your guys to stop it otherwise I'll get the courts involved."

So what brought upon the apparent outburst?

Well a few days earlier a book had been released in France, "Hold-uPS, arnaques et trahisons" in which two political journalists, Karim Rissouli and Antonin Andréa, took a critical and controversial look at the French Socialist party in recent years, its leading figures and its divisions; a sort of "tell all" if you will.

The book included a remark made in 2006 by Frédéric Lefebvre, then a member of Sarkozy's campaign team and now spokesman for the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party, about the possibility of DSK being the Socialist party's candidate and therefore Sarkozy's opponent in the 2007 presidential election.

Lefebvre is alleged to have told Rissouli and Andréa that the UMP had information that would seriously damage DSK's reputation should he become his party's candidate.

"It wouldn't take a week," he was quoted as saying." We have the photographs. They exist. And if we release them, the French won' like it."

An explosive (putting it mildly) assertion, which Lefebvre insisted he had never made, but one which obviously remained with DSK, whose lawyer in Paris, Jean Veil, confirmed to Le Point that he had been instructed to file a complaint should there be "any more defamatory assertions."

Somehow the race for the 2012 French presidency - although still a long way off - is already promising to be an interesting one.

French polls: Rama Yade's popularity and Sarkozy's poor showing

Another week another poll or at least so it seems here as the French have been asked yet again to name their most popular political figure.

And topping the list is none other than the junior minister for sports, Rama Yade.

The poll comes courtesy of the weekly news magazine, Le Point.

Once a month it publishes its ranking according to a survey conducted on its behalf by Ispos "to measure the popularity of the major players in the political arena".

In the latest poll, Yade has a 61 per cent approval rating. Just behind her is the Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, (59 per cent) and in third place another Socialist politician in the shape the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (54 per cent).

All right so opinion polls are open to interpretation and they are perhaps just snapshots, if you will, of current popular opinion rather than giving the full picture.

But Yade's obvious and sustained popularity must be giving her bosses the proverbial food for thought especially as it's the fourth month in a row that the Ipsos-Le Point poll has had her topping the list.

It almost seems as though Yade's popularity among the public increases as often as, and in parallel to, the criticism she receives from government and her centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party colleagues for refusing to toe the line or be a team player as in the recent example of her opposition to a government policy to abolish tax breaks for sportsmen and women.

As the French media puts it, "The more she is the target of criticism, the more popular she is."

One dark cloud perhaps for the 32-year-old is that her popularity among supporters of the UMP party is apparently on the decline.

So Yade on the up and up - or at least enjoying a high level of support among the general French population - but what of her big boss the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy?

Well, the latest poll appears to confirm the slump in his approval ratings over the last month at just 39 per cent.

But the news probably won't come as too much of a surprise to him.

After all just last week in another poll carried out this time by Ifop on behalf of the weekly news and celebrity lifestyle magazine, Paris Match, only 39 per cent of those questioned thought he was doing a good job, compared to 45 per cent at the end of September.

And the French president, who reached the mid-point of his five-year mandate last week also admitted in an interview that he had made a number of mistakes during his presidency.

They included his highly criticised break just after his election aboard the yacht of his millionaire friend Vincent Bolloré, which he conceded had been an "error of taste", the choice of Patrick Devedjian to head the UMP party in 2007 and most recently support for the candidature (now withdrawn) of his second son, Jean, for the top job at l'Etablissement public d'aménagement du quartier d'affaires de la Défense (Epad), the development agency for business district of La Defense on the outskirts of Paris.

It wasn't the first time during his tenure that Sarkozy has acknowledged mistakes or publicly expressed his "mea culpa".

And perhaps the more humble approach will see an improvement in his approval ratings when the next slew of opinion polls, of which the French media seems to be so fond, are published.

Watch this space.