French weekly magazines review

The government's latest clmibdown is greeted with derision. The French new right flexes its muscles. The justice minister is accused of political victimisation. And all you've ever wanted to know about Vladimir Putin.

The government’s back-tracking on a key family reform due to mass protests and the perceived harm to President François Hollande’s reputation polarises comments in this week’s French magazines.

The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné giggles again about Hollande’s lack of guts and the circus of ministers stepping on each others’ toes and yelling about a pitiful screw-up from advocates of the bill.

According to Le Canard, the single positive point about the flip-flop is that the president, who is suspected of putting useless issues on the table to avoid discussing jobless figures and economic recovery, can now focus on those questions full time.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira is the subject of more scorn from the satirical weekly, which has learnt that she has tried in vain to replace senior judge François Falletti as Prosecutor General of Paris.

According to Le Canard, Taubira’s principal private secretary told Falletti that she needed to hand the job to someone with the same “political sensibility” as the minister. The judge confirmed to the weekly he refused to step down. Le Canard regrets that Taubira, who talks a lot about the independence of the public prosecutor’s office, resorted to such a shameful manoeuvre.

Weakness of convictions is the trademark of this government, grumbles left-wing Marianne. It regrets François Hollande’s retreat in the face of Catholic fundamentalists. Socialist ideology is at stake, warns Marianne, pointing out that an appointment with history is being missed.

L’Express launches a scathing attack on the Socialist-led government with a special issue about the alleged waste of taxpayers’ money.

The right-wing magazine publishes an exclusive study on public policies carried out by the right-wing Institut Montaigne. It documents conceptual failures, poor targeting and an absence of accountability. L’Express wonders if Hollande can halt the squandering at a time when, it says, the French people can’t afford to pay more taxes and social security contributions.

Le Figaro Magazine reports a new plunge in Hollande’s popularity rating. It’s down to 19 per cent, according to a new poll the magazine commissioned from the TNS-Sofres institute. That’s the lowest ranking ever for a president 21 months after taking office. According to the right-wing journal, Hollande’s recent offer of a responsibility pact and his withdrawal of the family project won’t mean a return to grace.

If you are looking to acquaint yourself with the France of the anti-Hollandes, then read Le Figaro Magazine’s cover story.

Its all about the anti-eco-tax Red Caps of Brittany, the anti-tax “Pigeons”, the anti-gay marriage movement, a new generation of activists whose favourite pastime is Hollande-bashing. The weekly says that the movements, born in the streets and on social networks, operate outside political party and union rules, have little sense of humour and use slogans such as “French Spring” and “Get lost”. Many are eager to reincarnate the “soixante-huitards” the young left-wingers who mounted a popular rebellion against established political order in Paris in May 1968 but from the right.

The diversity of people fed up with the government and clamouring for a popular uprising is an issue of grave concern to Le Point.

The right-wing publication warns that the Manif pour tous anti-gay marriage movement is energising shades of opinion that lacked self confidence. That, it says, may be behind the racial reconfiguration taking place within the French far right. The growing popularity of comedian Dieudonné Mballa M’balla’s stiff-armed pose known as the quenelle is probably fuelling the anti-establishment trend, according to Le Point.

Le Nouvel Observateur claims to uncover the hidden face of Vladimir Putin the all-powerful leader of Russia who is turning the Sochi Olympic Games into a personal triumph.

He is a tsar of a hundred faces, writes the magazine, a strong virile athlete and at the same time a secretive man capable of concealing his emotions and private life. It’s a total portrait, how the KGB agent clawed his way to the Kremlin, his health, his friends and his wealth - his opponents describing Putin as the richest man on earth.