French weekly magazines review

Seven months away from the 2012 presidential elections, French leader Nicolas Sarkozy is going through a "calamitous season”, characterized by electoral setbacks, bad opinion polls and judicial scandals that have brought down some of his close friends and aides.

It’s hard to recall the last time that the French weeklies took the same editorial position on a political issue. They’ve come out swinging.

Le Point headlines on an “end of reign perfume” that has filled the air and L’Express on the “downfall of the presidential clan”. Left-leaning Le Nouvel Observateur “looks behind the scenes of an ending reign”, while Marianne harps on about Sarkozy becoming the “canon ball” of his political grouping.

L’Express publishes a 13-page dossier on the “hopeless times” facing the president. The magazine regrets that the centre-right coalition in power since 2002 faces a “painful moment in its history” with the election of a socialist as Senate president after last Sunday’s election defeat.

According to the magazine, President Sarkozy “watches helplessly as his men are mowed down” after being tarnished by scandals. They are all soaked in the Karachi affair, insists the weekly.

Long-time friend Brice Hortefeux, interior minister Claude Guéant , intelligence chief, Bernard Squarcini, national police boss Frédéric Péchnard, state prosecutor Philippe Courroye, Sarkozy’s mentor and ex-prime minister Edouard Balladur, not forgetting his best man Nicolas Bazire.

Le Canard Enchaîné in its usual sarcastic tone calls the loss of the senate “the worst slap on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s face”.

Sarkozy it says, “dreamt about going down in history as a great president, but history has instead gone down on him” as he becomes the first conservative president in the history of the fifth republic to lose the Senate.

The satirical weekly says the scandal of brief cases loaded with bank notes transported to the Elysée by his friends is dangerously closing in on him, despite attempts to shield him.

Marianne wonders if the ruling party still wants him as their leader. So too does Le Nouvel Observateur.

The left-leaning magazine believes the Elysée is in distress as the question looms. Le Point, also lends credence to the speculation that Prime Minister François Fillon and Foreign Minister Alain Juppé are standing by, in case Sarkozy throws in the towel.

Le Point also reviews a new explosive book titled Pride and Revenge by Anna Cabana. It is all about the “tumultuous” relationship between President Sarkozy and Alain Juppé. Cabana says Juppé might not be too happy about some of the revelations she makes in the book.

Le Figaro examines how President Sarkozy is preparing his response. The magazine says the president will not accelerate the launch of his campaign despite the setbacks caused by the economic crisis, the scandals, the loss of the Senate and the growing skepticism within the UMP about his re-election prospects.

“Move, move, there’s nothing to see here”, shouts Le Figaro in an editorial that seeks to minimize the impact of the scandals and setbacks on the president. The right-wing weekly follows the line adopted by ruling party spin doctors throughout the week.

The UMP lost the Upper House because it has not won a single local council election over the last ten years. Le Figaro’s warns the socialists not to celebrate too much because the Senate is not necessarily a shortcut to the Elysée.

L’Express came across documents from Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign detailing how the candidate spent a war chest of 21 million euros. The budget includes lines of lavish spending on luxury Falcon 900 jets, over half-a-million euros on travel during the campaign including a 25,000 euro return flight to Rouen which lies 139 kilometers outside Paris.

What a surprise then that this is coming from a right-wing newspaper.