French weekly magazines review

We begin with Marianne. The left-wing weekly puts forward the hypothesis that in the 2012 presidential election the conservative electorate might turn to the centrist leader François Bayrou. According to the candidate, both conservatives and the socialists are under pressure to move towards their respective extremes.

The centrist leader is convinced that incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy will collapse in the first round of the polls and that François Hollande is under pressure to move further to the left.

This, according to Bayrou, puts him in a position to win by gathering together the conservative and centrist votes.

“To win the election”, says the candidate, “ I will address the centre, the Socialists' and the conservative electorate.” And, according to the weekly, some conservative MPs are already preparing a public call to support Bayrou should Sarkozy’s already low popularity collapse in the coming months.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s confessions . Le Nouvel Obs’ paints a profile of pre-candidate Sarkozy. The French president is torn between accepting that he can be defeated and the raging desire to win again. Despite recent off-the-cuff remarks on “life after the presidency”, Sarkozy is more combative than ever. “It would be a total mistake to assume that the president is defeatist," the magazine declares.

"The only battles lost are those which were never waged”, says the weekly. At a time when governments across Europe have been ousted by the voters (with the exception of Germany), the French president firmly believes in his chances of reelection.

Dossier: Eurozone in crisis

“Do you realise that I am the only president to have survived the crisis? Zapatero, Brown, the crisis took them down, and I’m still there with 25 per cent of vote intentions!” In private, Sarkozy accuses Socialist candidate François Hollande of “péché d’arrogance”, the “sin of arrogance”. According to the President, the Socialist “doesn’t have a true vision for the country”.

Who are the new rulers of the world?

The centrist L’Express publishes a special report on the issue.

“What if," asks the weekly, "beyond national governments, there were other, opaque and secret supra-national governing structures, taking over the world? Structures beyond any democratic control."

This is the thesis of the book called Circus Politicus, featured prominently by the weekly.

L’Express publishes excerpts from the book including revelations on little-known institutions like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision or the Bilderberg Group, organisations behind some of the major international agreements or top nominations to some of the world’s most powerful institutions.

Nouvel Obs features a special report on the assault that Tunisian Salafists are waging against women’s rights.

“A veil on the face of the revolution”, reads the headline. Barely a year after the “jasmine revolution”, the radical islamists are trying to impose veils in the universities and stigmatise women who wish to have an abortion.

Feminist bloggers receive rape threats and a female director of a movie called Thank God for secularism received death threats. How far willthe radicals go if the “moderate” Islamic government allows them to push their agenda with “strange benevolence”? asks the author. The battle against the radicalisation has just begun, warns the article.

Does internet turn us into megalomaniacs?

The Saturday supplement of Le Figaro publishes a series of profiles of young people who became famous thanks to the internet.

“Have I become a little narcissistic monster, ready to give away my holiday pictures to gain an instant of celebrity? Yes, a million times yes!” exclaims one of them.

But the article also features inspiring stories of talented artists who were able to get their big break thanks to the internet.

One of them, Irma, is a singer born in Cameroon. Thanks to online fans, she was able to raise 70,000 euros to produce her first disc and later on signed up with a global record label.

The internet has not changed the fundamental rules of success, says the article. But at least, on the web, everybody can try their luck at becoming a celebrity.