The High Priest of the Presidential Table
Bernard Vaussion, chef de l’Elysée, executive chef at the presidential palace, retires soon after 38 years feeding French presidents, a career making him France’s culinary high priest yet leaving him relatively unknown in the guidebooks of haute cuisine. For this Chefs des Chefs, is more of a secret agent than a culinary super-star. After all, he [...]
European Coup D’Etat And Rape Of Democracy
A French Rebellion Against Unelected Bureaucrats: “European Coup D’Etat And Rape Of Democracy” by Wolf Richter of Testosterone Pit blog – reprinted here with thanks and by kind permission of the author. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 When the German Constitutional Court nodded with a stern smile on the ESM bailout fund and the Fiscal Union treaty, [...]
Will France be Socialist after June Vote?
Having lost the presidency the Right in France is hoping to hobble the Socialist project by winning a Parliamentary majority. However Marine le Pen’s Front National is mounting a hostile takeover bid to become leaders of opposition to Socialism, following Sarkozy’s narrow defeat. Patrice de Beer, a former London and Washington correspondent for Le Monde, sets the scene in the piece below republished [...]
Can Monsieur Flanby Now Pull It Off ?
Socialist leader François Holland– unkindly dubbed Monsieur Flanby in reference to a caramel pudding reminiscent of his flaccid politics — appeared to be facing a tough battle in the second round of the presidential elections after a neck in neck race in which protest votes were the most striking outcome. This Youtube video which appeared [...]
Zarkface and Zollandman in Limited Editions
Bastien Rochard, a 25-year-old entrepreneur from Lille, is marketing collectible figurines of France’s two main presidential contenders ahead of the May 5 runoff. The drawcard — and a possibly unintended comment on politics in general — is that they are limited editions. If it catches on, this limited-edition-politician idea – numbered, rare and destined for [...]
Missing the E-word in the French Election
Jacques Attali, French economist and writer is clear — whoever wins the presidential election faces an economic minefield that all candidates in the campaign have so far carefully ignored . Here he points to the serious issues he believes are set to erupt: “(Come election day plus one) either François Hollande is elected or Nicolas Sarkozy is re-elected. In both cases, the [...]
Millionth Sole Trader draws Left-led Attack
As the millionth sole trader enterprise – a home service mobile beauty parlour — tricycles its way around Bordeaux, vested interests led by the Left strongly attack the innovative scheme, urging it be curtailed or abolished. Their call comes despite the fact that more than half France’s new firms — dubbed “autoentreprise” – are today established [...]
Crony Capitalism Corroding Democracy
As Greece signed the latest bailout deal, a relieved President Nicolas Sarkozy exclaimed the ‘crisis has turned the corner’. Wrong. The Merkozy couple clearly disregard trans-Atlantic crony capitalism now white-anting democracy. (Read more French News here) Listen as an ex-Republican and a disillusioned Democrat in the United States debate the “crony capitalism” rampant in Washington DC [...]
Sarkozy Turns It Into an Halal-Kiri Election
France without gastronomy would be France diminished so no surprise that the presidential election campaign seems to be taking some meatier aspects of food seriously, even though voter concerns are elsewhere. (Read more French News here) Showing increasing relish for a spicy election menu the combative maitre’d, Nicolas Sarkozy has, in the process of making a campaign meal out of [...]
Marine Le Pen a menace says Chief Rabbi
Gilles Bernheim the Chief Rabbi of France has told Europe 1 that Marine Le Pen the Front National candiate in the presidential elections is “a menace”. His remarks came as concerns over alleged wide distribution of unlabelled halal meat showed signs of becoming a key argument for President Sarkozy’s ruling UMP coalition and the Front National in their separate efforts [...]
Au Revoir Triple A, But How Credible Is S&P?
Less than 100 days before France’s presidential election Standard & Poor’s has hit nine euro-zone countries with sovereign downgrades and trimmed a notch off the prized French Triple A, a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election chances. (Read more online here) Not unexpectedly this Friday 13th move was seized on by the opposition to score electioneering [...]
Polls – Something Fishy Going On?
Why are French opinion polls so different from one another are they being manipulated asks France24? Earlier France Radio’s chief political commentator Hubert Huertas noted that a poll today (February 28) compared against one of ten months ago offered static results. He said the latest Ipsos Radio France poll (measuring soundings today against May 2011) showed [...]
Pininterest Lampoons Sarkozy’s Style
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s team recently got very touchy about some spoof Twitter accounts set up just as he launched his re-election campaign. There was an outcry when a number were subsequently taken down after complaints by campaign managers. Now an unidentified someone who describes himself as “Compte parodique à la durée de vie potentiellement (très) [...]
Parisians Lineup for Portuguese Tarts
An unpretentious 11-letter word is set to be a hot topic on election bandwagons rolling across France as left and right contenders attempt to unseat the sitting head of state from his apparently highly precarious perch. Most polls and commentators suggest President Nicolas Sarkozy is fighting for his political life in the April 2012 ballot which [...]
French issues: En Route to the Presidency
President Nicolas Sarkozy announces he will stand for re-election as head of state — first round of voting is on April 22. Listen to Elena Casas Montanez of France 24 with some of the details. So they’re off. All main players — Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, François Bayrou, Marine le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon — are [...]
Does Marine le Pen face the Guillotine?
Want to run for the French Presidency? No problem just lineup 500 mayors and/or local officials from at least 30 different départements willing to supply a reference or parrainage , and you’re on your way. Well that reportedly, is proving more difficult than it sounds for the far-right Front National candidate Marine le Pen. She [...]
Its between Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Writer, activist and former French communist, Alain Soral, tells RT that Marine Le Pen is the only real alternative to the socialists and UMP in the upcoming French presidential elections. Alain Soral says neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor his Socialist rival, François Hollande can do what they say they want to do namely save French companies and [...]
Jeanne d’Arc, A Gender Issue At Age 600
Days before the 600th anniversary of the French heroine’s birth, the Paris-based magazine VSD opted to stir an historical (and political) pot with this provocative question: “What if Joan of Arc, were a man?” (Read more online here) As VSD surely expected, heated and disapproving reaction especially from the Right, was not slow in coming, particularly [...]
Shale Gas: Three of 64 Permits Revoked
France has revoked three of 64 permits granted to major energy companies to use hugely controversial ‘fracking’ methods for shale gas exploration in sensitive farming, wine and tourism areas.. According to a report in France Soir France has revoked the permits in compliance with a law passed in May by the Assemblée Nationale (the lower [...]
Fire Storm Alarm: “French Banks are Solid”
In an invitation to the markets to panic, Bank of France governor Christian Noyer has insisted French banks are solid and there are no plans to recapitalise. This despite reports in French news media that have been strongly denied, about secret discussions for the nationalisation of major banking institutions when Greece defaults, as it has now [...]
Hudson Institute Score: Pope 1, Prophet 2
The respected Washington-based Hudson Institute reports that in France Islam is overtaking Catholicism as the dominant religion, while coincidentally, an Ipsos poll shows 54% of the French believe immigration has been negative for the country. (Read more online French News here) This double whammy is certain to be music to Front National leader Marine le Pen’s [...]
Zig-Zagging towards European Federation?
Euroland has pulled back from the brink with a Greek bailout deal close to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s heart, but is this good news or bad? That depends entirely on whose press you read… (Read more online French News here) The outcome of the brinkmanship between Germany and France has produced a framework plan to [...]
DSK, France and a Eurozone Collapse
In a sort of Death of a President or Samson sheared by unworthy Delilah moment… le Tout Paris has been beating its collective breast for days over L’affaire DSK. (Read more online French News here) As more and more damning details of the case emerged and the storm clouds darkened daily, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) resigned his highly-paid post [...]
No to Scientology, Yes to Life – Deputy Mayor
Fabien Robert, deputy Mayor of Bordeaux is a brave man. He and fellow councillors have been on the streets of this famous wine city, countering the activities of Scientology, one of the world’s most aggressively litigious cults. (Read more online French News here) Wearing tricolour sashes, the familiar badge of office of local Mayors and [...]
Sarkozy: ‘Regulate’ not ‘Restrain’ the Internet
Despite plunging popularity in the polls President Nicolas Sarkozy seems determined to pursue an increasingly authoritarian line on Internet regulation. The President now presiding over the G8 group of the world’s most powerful economies, has scheduled a special sideshow, the ‘G8 du Web’ to be held in Deauville on May 26-27 to deal with the [...]
A Sarkozy Mix: Greens, Farmers and Muslims
As the latest opinion polls showed further swings to Marine le Pen in the 2012 presidential race, the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, chose to lecture farmers in Paris for the 48th Annual Agriculture Show on …. Muslim integration. More intriguingly his remarks, reported on the 20minutes.fr website, were prompted by a contested leftwing ecology campaign against [...]
Failed, Politically Bankrupt, in a word Dead
German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the offensive, British PM David Cameron threw it into the scrum and now President Nicolas Sarkozy has converted it, the match view is unanimous, multiculturalism in the EU is failed, politically bankrupt and dead. So what have the leaders of the EU’s three most populous states (212 million people) [...]
Marine Le Pen – the “True French Resistance”
As the European dream dissolves into Euromess, French domestic discontent is fuelling a resurgence on the right where a blonde knight riding the charger of the “true French Resistance” has entered the election race. The party’s choice of Marine Le Pen (42) to succeed her 82-year-old father as leader of the FN-Front National paves the [...]
Socialist’s Off to War Over Grammargate
Nothing France likes better than a bit of cultural controversy especially when it involves the love-him or hate-him figure of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, now preparing the ground for a 2012 re-election bid. So when the Socialist opposition launched Grammargate the country paused to watch and listen. Here was an interesting bit of viande saignante [...]
Muslim ‘Occupation’ Remark Sparks Rage
Remarks comparing Muslims who take over streets in parts of Paris and elsewhere for Friday prayers, with the Nazi German occupation of France during World War 11, have provoked outrage across the political spectrum as left and right jockey in the run-up to the 2012 presidential race. With predictably routine anger mainstream parties across the [...]
