Breaking the sound of silence

It hasn’t happened often in the past six months, but there’s been something of a lull in recent weeks in the French president’s almost boundless domination of the country’s news agenda.

But hallelujah Nicolas Sarkozy is about to make yet another of his ad hoc party political broadcasts this evening - on behalf of himself of course.

There’ll be prime time TV news coverage with the usual simpering questions from two of the country’s top journalists, Patrick Poivre D’Avor - PPDA (TF1) and Arlotte Chabot (France 2).

Sarkozy will undoubtedly alternately frown and beam as he answers questions and outlines his (government’s) proposals for dealing with the riots in the suburbs, increasing individuals’ purchasing power and remaining steadfast in his resolve to reform pensions.

So he’s about to break his silence, which will come as a relief to many a journalist.

Friday’s newspapers will heave with headlines dominated by the president’s proclamations, so it’ll be a case of business as usual. Since he took office, Sarkozy has been popping up everywhere, all the time and his omnipresence even led some in the media to complain that he was getting too much coverage for every morsel he deigned to throw to the pack.

His answer was to maintain a thunderous hush as he allowed employment minister, Xavier Bertrand, to deal with the unions’ at a time when a huge chunk of the workforce was struggling its way through the transport strikes in an effort to put in their 35-hours a week.

The main thrust of tonight’s “interview” was meant to be consumer purchasing power or “pouvoir d’achat”. It seems to have become something of buzz phrase here recently with the French apparently firmly convinced they can legislate to increase it. Even the Socialists (yes they still squeak with several voices) have promised to express their disunited view on how the euro can be made to stretch further.

Nobody should hold their breath though for some magical presidential solution. It’s hard to see exactly how Sarkozy can offer real incentives, as the state coffers are all but empty after the tax breaks awarded to the better off a few months ago.

The economy hasn’t yet had the kick-start that was expected and Sarkozy resolutely refuses to increase the minimum wage. So the likely answer to drop from the president’s lips will be his oft-chanted mantra “work more to earn more”. Hallelujah indeed.

Meanwhile on the violence in the suburbs, he’ll once again be hard pushed to find a quick-fit answer as everyone agrees there simply isn’t one

He has already vowed to find those who shot and injured police officers in the rioting that followed the death of two teenagers after their scooter collided with a police car.

The most Sarkozy can realistically offer is to accelerate the current consultation process already being undertaken by the junior minister for urban policies, Fadela Amara. She’s due to deliver a blueprint for improving education and employment opportunities (especially among the young) in the deprived inner city suburbs at the end of January 2008.

But at least Sarkozy’s reaction as president has been much more measured this time around than it was two years ago when he was interior minister. The three weeks of violence in 2005 led him to remark that the “scum needed to be cleaned from the street” – a comment which did not endear him to the residents of those inner city suburbs and he made a point of steering clear of them during his presidential campaigning.

This week’s violence broke out while he was on a state visit to China signing billion-euro contracts and it was left to the current interior minister, Michele Alliot-Marie – widely perceived as a much more conciliatory figure – to deal with the immediate aftermath.

On his return Sarkozy visited injured police officers in their hospital beds and took to the streets before (finally) persuading the families of the two youths who died in the collision to come to his official residence at the Elysée Palace.

Zero tolerance may still be at the core of Sarkozy’s approach, but the reigns of office, lessons of the past and his undoubted showmanship may well help him garner support from the public at large.

Ah yes this evening’s PR show will be fascinating, if only to see whether either PPDA or Chabot dares to ask any follow-up questions about Cecilia. During their last-love in a couple of month ago, the two esteemed journalists were treated to a touching marital tribute from Sarkozy who waxed lyrical over his (now former) wife’s contribution to his political life. There was no hint of the impending divorce of course.

Maybe the name Laurence will pass his lips this time. Unlikely.

Love is in the air

Barely weeks after officially divorcing his apparent femme fatale, the enigmatic Cecilia, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly head over heels in love again.

And this time it’s with a leading French television journalist, who recently announced she was splitting from her husband of 14 years.

Laurence Ferrari is not just your run of the mill journo. The 41-year-old presented a number of documentaries on the country’s top-rated TF1 channel and hosted a lightweight political weekly magazine with her former husband, Thomas Hugues.

Indeed Hugues and Ferrari were so-to-speak the golden glamour couple of TV news, perhaps unkindly perceived as the network’s Ken and Barbie. And they were both regular stand-ins for the daily and weekend prime time news anchors Patrick Poivre d'Arvor and Claire Chazal.

But that all changed in Autumn last year when Ferrari was poached by a competitive network – Canal + – and given her own weekly political programme, the chance for her to go one-on-one with some of France’s leading figures.

And it was on the set of that show, Dimanche +, that she met the then presidential candidate in March this year – and by all reports the two clicked.

Over the past few months the couple have supposedly been spotted enjoying candlelit meals together in Paris, and Ferrari is a frequent visitor to the president’s official residence, the Elysée Palace.

She was even allegedly seen at the same hotel in Marrakech, during Sarkozy’s state visit to Morocco earlier this month.

Ah the true stuff of genuine journalism – gossip and speculation.

If the two workaholics do get together you, can bet that the French media will be the last to confirm the relationship as it has until recently been notoriously cautious in reporting the private lives of public people. France has very strict privacy laws.

Should the rumours be true, it won’t be the first time Sarkozy has had a fling with a journalist. Two years ago he was romantically linked to Anna Fulda, a reporter on the centre-right daily Le Figaro.

True or false, the rumours of the fledgling romance persist. And the assertion by an Elysée Palace spokesman that Sarkozy's personal life was "not open for discussion" will hardly help. Much the same response was given in the days leading up to the divorce from Cecilia last month.

Claws out in cabinet

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, may well have rubber-stamped trade deals worth almost 20 billion euros during his state visit to China, but back home there has been a minor media storm surrounding one person who wasn’t invited along for the trip.

Sarkozy took a clutch of seven government ministers and a gaggle of French industrialists with him on his three-day trip, but there was no room on the ‘plane for Rama Yade.

Senegalese-born Yade was appointed as a junior minister back in June – with responsibilities in an area Sarkozy had identified as a priority for his new government – human rights.

The 30-year-old Yade, who has had a meteoric rise to political high office, is one of three women from ethnic minorities to figure in the government. The others are justice minister, Rachida Dati, who holds dual French-Moroccan nationality, and the junior minister for urban policies, Fadela Amara, whose parents are of Algerian Kabyle origin.

Sarkozy often talks about them as a symbol of the diversity and the new face of French politics.

So how come Yade has been left at home while Dati yet again accompanies the president on his travels? After all it would make sense to have her along as by any standards China has one of the world’s worst human rights records. And Yade herself wanted to go.

Ah well of course there is a purely pragmatic reason. Sarkozy simply didn’t want to offend his hosts by including in his entourage someone charged specifically with responsibilities for human rights.

As even Yade’s immediate boss, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, pointed out beforehand, the purpose of the trip was to secure those multi-billion euro deals for two nuclear power stations and 160 Airbus ‘planes.

Far better then for Sarkozy to deal with the delicate issue of human rights himself even if it meant once again usurping the role of one of his ministers. A characteristic not unfamiliar so far during his short reign as president.

But the rumour mill has it that pure politics was not the only reason behind the decision. Personal differences and disputes normally confined to the school playground also played their part.

Hard to believe, but apparently true, Dati cannot stand Yade and accordingly threw a little hissy fit along the lines of “If she goes I stay at home.”

Home for Dati is not especially welcoming at the moment as she is trying to push through reforms to France’s antiquated judicial administrative system but is often accused of being completely incompetent.

Remember this is the woman who is a close buddy with the former Mrs Sarkozy and whom the president has withdrawn from the domestic firing line a couple of times already by taking her on his jaunts to Morocco and the United States.

Whatever the personal relationship between Dati and Yade, both women will have the chance to put their political popularity to the test next year when they stand in local elections.

Perhaps Yade will have used the past few days as a chance to get in a spot of early campaigning in her constituency while Dati picks up a few tips from the Chinese as to how to run an ultra-efficient judicial system.