French weekly magazines review 15 February 2015

DR

Poring over the French weeklies one recent weekend, I was mystified by the cover story of Le Monde magazine. There was a photo of those four mop-headed scousers known as the Beatles, the rock and roll band who were the most famous export of the port city of Liverpool, England, 50 years ago. Le Monde declared that "Beatlemania" - older listeners will recall the crowds of hysterical girls who worshipped them - is alive and well. This struck me as nonsense. The Beatles split up 45 years ago. Two of them are dead. Yes, they were brilliant. But, why devote page after page to them now?

This week's edition of Le Monde magazine provides what looks like an answer. There's a full page ad and a page of text announcing that Le Monde is offering all the group's music - 25 albums and DVDs. When I say "offering", they are on sale at 9,99 euros each. And, the magazine will be plugging them, one at a time, in the weeks and months to come. Fair enough, I suppose. Although, while one isn't surprised to see editorial content driven by advertising in fashion magazines, it's cause for concern in weeklies largely given over to reportage.

One piece of reportage in this week's Le Monde mag overlaps with another in Marianne magazine. More of which later.

The Le Monde story takes us south to Marseilles, where, it reminds us, 20 years ago next week, a high school student named Ibrahim Ali was shot dead by three supporters of the far-right Front National party during an election campaign. The killing shocked France and triggered huge demonstrations.

The circumstances were disputed; The Front National supporters said they were defending themselves. In the event, one was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. A second was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years. The third was jailed for two years for carrying a weapon. "Today, everyone is 'Charlie'. At that time, everyone was crying Justice for Ibrahim," recalled a municipal official.

Le Monde has decided to revisit this story because, 20 years on, one kilometre from where the 17-year-old was shot - installed in the town hall as Mayor is Stéphane Ravier, a Front National member, elected in March last year by voters in Marseille's 7th district, and also to the French Senate, the upper house of Parliament in Paris. The story dwells on what happened 20 years ago and the complaints and anxieties of local Muslims. It does nothing to explain Ravier's success at the ballot box.

Le Figaro magazine adorns it front cover with three photos - those of the founder of the Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, his daughter and current party leader, Marine Le Pen, and his grand daughter, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who at the age of 22 became France's youngest MP in modern political history. The magazine promises revelations about what it calls "A family business, which hides their clashes."

The French weeklies have a passion for what gardeners call "hardy perennials"; plants that return time and again over the years. For magazines, it's stories you've seen before. One that springs to mind is how France is controlled by the Masons, those secretive men with funny handshakes and arcane rituals. "Le Pen - the family business" looks like becoming another. This furrow was ploughed not long ago by a different weekly.

No matter. What has Le Figaro to tell us? The family business is wider than the party's three pin-ups. Yann, another of the founder's daughters and mother of Marion, organises demonstrations. A son-in-law, Louis Aliot, is party Vice-President.

The paper says there are disputes within the family over political line of the Front National. It quotes Marine as saying of her father: "Between him and me, it's the Breton sky". Which means changeable weather, sunshine and showers and occasional storms. Le Pen senior says "A kindly Front National is of no interest." Daughter Marine has distanced herself from his strident approach. Evidently, Marine and her niece Marion don't always see eye to eye. The younger woman is said to be more liberal and more conservative, closer to her grandfather's views. One example, offered, is her fierce opposition to gay marriage. Grandpa and grand daughter want to appeal to voters concerned about immigration and national identity. Marine wants a unified right-wing, seducing voters of the more moderate UMP party. Interesting, but hardly cover story material. Is there a political party anywhere where everyone agrees?

Last but not least, left-leaning Marianne spills the beans on the people it says are "pillaging" France. The guilty one? Banks, show-business, crooks, tax dodgers and the super wealthy. The story comes off the back of whistle blower revelations about secret accounts at the Swiss banking arm of HSBC - that's the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation; nowadays a global player. Marianne reports that of 3,000 persons on the list of account holders only 62 have been prosecuted.

There's more. Even major public companies, including SNCF, that's the French railways, and EDF, the electricity giant, are accused of dodging taxes through "shell companies" in Luxembourg. Much more to come on that story, I'm sure.