French weekly magazines review 13 September 2014

It’s another week of below-the-belt bashing of French President François Hollande by the magazines, with a new opinion poll finding that nearly two-thirds of French people want him to resign. 

The beleaguered Hollande, already the most unpopular president in modern French history, is grappling with massive unemployment, a stagnating economy and now a salacious new book by ex-First Girl Friend Valérie Trierweiler, in which she depicts him as insincere, cold and, most damaging of all, scornful of the poor.

Le Figaro magazine accuses the Socialist president of taking advantage of the people in a scathing editorial.

The right-wing weekly, wonders how Hollande, who has no control of anything – from his party, his private life, the probity of his ministers to even the action plan of his term of office - is fit to rule the country.

According to Le Figaro magazine, the revelations made by his ex-partner have come to confirm the negative opinion most French people have of him, namely that he is indecisive, does the contrary of what he says, does not respect promises and notorious for concealing his incompetence in falsehoods that are glaringly obvious to everyone.

Le Canard Enchaîné notes Valérie T’s remarkable exploit of writing a book about her time with Hollande, while suing two journalists who dared author a book on her previous marriage.

According to the satirical paper, even if Hollande has the character flaws his vengeful ex-partner claims, he has an amazing ability to survive, standing unruffled under torrential rain without an umbrella and riding without a scooter helmet as a sex scandal breaks about him.

L’Express describes Hollande’s tenure at the Elysée Palace as a journey through the depths of hell, citing instances when it says he has discredited his office and humiliated himself.

The right-wing magazine argues in an editorial that no president can afford to spend so many hours resolving personal sentimental problems and still concentrate on his mission. It goes on to say that Hollande is a prisoner of his weaknesses and France is paying the price. And it advises him to sign a personal responsibility pact with the people of France and make a formal pledge that he will not seek reelection in 2017.

Le Point also doubts Hollande’s ability to govern and complete his five-year mandate.

He now symbolises France’s ruined image, writes the right-wing publication. It also compares Trierweiler’s bombshell to the American HBO television series Game of Thrones, adding that people are wondering how she managed to live with such a cynic and manipulator for nine full years if her assertions are true.

Le Point however reads a paradox from the new mediatised catastrophe, a last chance for Hollande to redeem his presidency: It advises him to take advantage of his misfortunes and expel the left-wing rebels it says are poisoning the life of the Socialist government.

According to the weekly, he must give a free hand to his Prime Minister Manuel Valls to accelerate the structural reforms France needs so desperately or get bogged down for good in the mixture of inaction and depression which has caused the French motor to break down.

Marianne comments that Hollande has ended up incarnating French incompetence, from the crisis in political morality to social disintegration. It argues that it is the core of the French system that needs to be changed, not Hollande. The journal backs its position with a special supplement tracing the origins of the French malaise.

According to the left-wing publication, the integrated concept of economic globalisation is to blame for the neglect of rural France. That, it explains, has caused a clash between rich and poor towns, which in turn is fuelling the rise of populism and pushing former left-wing voters to the far-right Front National.