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French weekly magazines review 26 October 2014

We begin with the power struggle in the opposition conservative UMP party between former President Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-Prime Minister and Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppé, which is the front page of two leading publications. Relations between the two former allies have become so sour that Le Figaro Magazine now talks openly about a declaration of war. The right-wing weekly runs excerpts from a private conversation the two foes had in September in Paris where Sarkozy allegedly told Juppé he was going to kill him. According to Le Figaro, Juppé fired back saying quote “you know where to find me.” End of quote.

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The Sarkozy/Juppé standoff is also the cover story of this week’s L’Express. The magazine presents the two men as cow boys preparing for a duel and asks which of them will strike first. There will be no mercy for the loser writes L’Express, regretting that the fate of the conservatives and their prospects in the 2017 presidential elections depends on the outcome of the confrontation.

As the opposition UMP party struggles to redeem its credibility in the wake of the Bygmalion scandal in which invoices for Sarkozy's campaign were passed off as invoices for the UMP, Marianne reviews a new book uncovering the bankrolling of French right-wing politicians during the long reign of late Gabonese President Omar Bongo. The bombshell titled “Nouvelles Affaires Africaines”, by the renowned French author Pierre Péan digs out the unbelievable system that was put in place by Bongo to siphon public funds to replenish personal accounts. Bongo transformed the distribution of envelopes and brief cases into a system of government, writes Marianne. The author also makes startling revelations about the troubled last days of Bongo’s rule and the war of succession that ensued.

Gabon may be the source of some undeclared wealth of some 60 lawmakers who are facing what Le Canard Enchaîné describes as income tax adjustment. The satirical paper says the group of very imminent personalities whose names are soon to be published simply forgot to declare some of their assets-- the weekly branding them as big Thevenouds – named after Thomas Thévenoud, the Socialist External Trade Minister who was forced to resign for forgetting to pay his taxes and rent for three years.

Le Nouvel Observateur inaugurated its new name L’Obs with a long interview of Prime Minister Manuel Valls who says time has ran out for backward looking Socialists. Valls’s hard talk was in response to leftists rebels opposing the government’s so-called social democratic policies. They are calling on President Hollande hit by the persisting crisis and record-high unpopularity to change course. But Valls told the publication that the administration will stay the course warning that the Left must re-invent itself or perish.

And at these times of systematic self-flagellation in France, when even lawmakers have turned French bashing into a business asset, Le Point has some news which will lift French spirits. The right-wing magazine found out that Silicon Valley is desperately looking for French IT experts.

According to the journal, the Californian giants have developed a soft spot for French-trained hi-Tech experts, known for their critical and open-minded credentials. More than 5000 well paying jobs are on offer to them every year writes Le Point. A French entrepreneur heading a consortium of 400 French companies, who settled in the Valley says only 250 graduates have shown interest for the jobs despite an income offer twice the amount offered in France. Le Point says an estimated 60,000 French citizens now work in the Californian bay with 15000 in the hi-Tech sector.

 

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