Mr Hollande's latest squeeze

[Chancer]

As is often the case other people can express my thoughts much better than I can, I read this DM readers comment and it sums up exactly the way the 1000 dollar question was posed to the president

 

That first question was such an obvious plant it was ridiculous... "oh, Mr President, thank you so so much and such a happy new year to you and thank you so much for saving all those people abroad and thank you for such a dynamic speech today etc etc etc...oh, and here is the bit about the first lady you wanted me to ask so you could give you're scripted and rehearsed answer and close the matter off so you can decide later, or not, or perhaps just leave things as they are Mr president" Fair play though, some French TV comedy is now actually quite funny thanks to all the material this guy hands them

I felt that all the journalists were frightened to challenge him, what he needs is a good session with Paxman!

[woolybanana]

French TV commentators made it pretty clear that the questions were carefully vetted beforehand as were the journos able to ask them.

Much concern about the security of the head of state though.

There is little tradition of Paxman style questioning here, unfortunately. However, there is an average of one deputy a week being arrested for some public crime or other, so at least they are being kept up to scratch.

[NormanH]

what he needs is a good session with Paxman!

I rather think the same about Prince Charles and his attempts to meddle in politics

[woolybanana]

By the way, Norman, did you see your favourite leftie left politician on TV last night? He seemed to have nothing to say.

And I gather his party can't get enough funds for a European Parliament campaign. Says it all really.

Even Melenchon has hardly got a mention in the press. Is he a busted flush?

Prince Charles, well, the key word is "attempts"; don't think he gets very far. But then he is just another lobbyist

[idun]

Poses the question, are there really that many disparaging words for

males who do the dirty? I once heard a man referred to as a 'male boot'

and they were rather shocked, but it was true.

President's

security? Well are they asking for 'blood tests' from his liasons, some

nasty STD would be an attack upon his person, wouldn't it?

Indesicive, well he may not be managing France that well, but he seems to have put his energy and desicion making into getting out of his palace and to see his 2nd mistress.

[Clair]

ob·se·qui·ous:

1. marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

2. eager to help or obey someone important

3. French journalist when in the presence of their head of state

The French journalists who attended (were invited?) know that they have to show deference and reverence unless they want the papers/TV shows they represent to be frozen out of press meetings and other sound-bite opportunities.

It's a large - and cozy - bed they all share, as was amply demonstrated with the DSK revelations in 2011-12.

[NormanH]

Reading this thread I am saddened to see how successful the right-wing press are in' dumbing down ' the expectations and responses of readers, taking the discussion to their gutter level and losing completely the content of what  was said.

I recommend a reading of Gramsci as a first step to the counter-hegemonic struggle..

http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/gramsci-and-hegemony/

[Martin963]

I'm afraid all the references to Marx made me lose the will to try and understand that link you gave,  but (and this is an entirely serious request,  I'm not in any way trying to "provoke" anything here) could you perhaps be a bit more specific Norman as to what you mean about the "dumbing down" of the expectations and responses of the readers.

I ask because - as I (perhaps erroneously) see it - it was the "left wing" in general that kept up a tireless and largely unfounded (and hysterical) campaign against Mr Sarkozy for so many years,   and I still meet "ordinary socialists" who spout the same old unproven stuff (facts to them) about him at nauseam,  some of them almost swivelling their eyes as they do it.   It's almost as though they have been brainwashed in some cases.   Certainly they are incapable of listening to any point of view not aligned to their own.

So I'm not sure what the difference here is with the present situation,  other than it's a socialist president who has made a complete muppet of himself on every front,  and the facts about his activities are being wrung out,  slowly but surely.

It would seem to me that the only dumbing down is the bringing into disrepute of the presidential office of a great country,  a country which I both love and respect.    My own view - old fashioned I know - is that if one is entrusted with the highest office of the land it is a mark of respect towards those that elected one (and indeed those that didn't) to try and behave to the highest standards.   We are of course all human,  but the sheer insincerity (all those "painful moments") of Patapouf make him in my eyes totally unworthy of the office bestowed upon him.

As I say,  I really am trying to understand your point Norman.   We might not agree politically but what HAVE we lost of "the content of what was said"?

[NormanH]

Le Figaro, an essentially right-wing, business -orientated newspaper covered the economic points and the reaction of the opposition to them

http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2014/01/15/01002-20140115ARTFIG00371-les-propositions-de-francois-hollande-divisent-la-droite.php

That seems to me to be dealing with the issues of importance. "the content of what was said"?

Here are some of them

Le pacte couvre quatre chantiers, a déclaré le chef de l'État. Le

premier, c'est la poursuite de l'allègement du coût du travail. Je fixe

un nouvel objectif : que d'ici 2017, pour les entreprises et

travailleurs indépendants, ce soit la fin des cotisations familiales".

"Le deuxième chantier consiste à donner de la visibilité aux

entreprises. Nous fixerons un horizon 2017 avec une trajectoire de

prélèvements obligatoires pour les entreprises", a poursuivi François

Hollande.

"Le troisième chantier, c'est la simplification. Il s'agit de réduire un

certain nombre de normes et de faciliter la prise de décision, a encore

expliqué le président. Le quatrième, ce sont les contreparties. Elles

doivent être définies au niveau national et déclinées par branches

professionnelles. Elle porteront sur des objectifs chiffrés d'embauche

et de qualité de l'emploi notamment".

There was also mention of reducing the number of Regions to simplify the administrative structure.

Not much discussion of those in the preceding "people-orientated" posts

As for the presidential office that was dragged into dispute a long time ago, and Sarkozy did his share of the digging by for example his remark "

Casse-toi pauvre con" http://www.koreus.com/video/sarkozy-salon-agriculture.html

it really isn't very dignified behaviour for someone who, as Head of

State, is supposed to represent his country to the world. You really

couldn't imagine the Queen telling anyone to sod off in public, still

less call them a - well, whatever translation you've settled on for

"pauvre con".

Or another well-known occasion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhFjwliEiLc&html5=1

Those seem to me examples of "the bringing into disrepute of the presidential office of a great country" as much as anything we heard at the press conference yesterday.

Play the ball not the man was my old fashioned way of looking at it before.

[YCCMB]

To a large extent, Norman, I took the fact that this thread was actually begun long before yesterday's press conference as indication that the discussion was about Hollande's affair, and not about his plans for the future of France. To be honest, much of his scattergun approach to reform so far leads me to wonder just how many of the reforms and changes he spoke of yesterday will ever be concretised and, if they are, how long it might be before there's a change to the substance of what he's announced. But that's just my view. And although it may differ from yours in some respects, I don't think any amount of trying to play the ball and not the man will manage to detract from the fact that the man is a buffoon. But then I thought Sarkozy was one as well. And Cameron and Brown, and .......(just for a bit of political balance)

[Thibault]

Perhaps that means politics is the chosen career path for buffoons, Betty.

Who, in your view, was the last non-buffoon politician in France and UK?

[YCCMB]

I don't have a very high opinion of politicians in general, Thibault, so I'm not going to answer that. :-)

[Pickles]

There are two issues going on here:

1: the content of his speech, which to be honest I thought was not really the subject of the thread.

2: the revelations of his private life in the press.

As regards 1), there were a lot of words and promises for this and that, some vaguer than others, but (and perhaps this is not the intention of the speech) there was no mention of "how". Reference has been made to him saying that he's going to reduce public spending by €65 million, but absolutely no indication of HOW the heck he is going to do this. He hasn't managed to make any reductions so far, as far as I can see. And THAT is going to be the true test of his leadership. His own ministers are not exactly the sort to stand together - they seem to make the Left in the UK seem like a solidly united voice by comparison.

As regards 2), basically this is something that he has done to himself. In the past, the French press tended to ignore these things (partly on pain of retribution), and before the internet, if it wasn't published in France then only a small circle in Paris would have known. However, also in the past, those involved tended to keep schtum and "hold the line" - particularly the wives who had been cheated on. Now we apparently have the current girlfriend talking to the press from her hospital bed and via "friends", plus her replacement seems to be briefing via "people who are close to her". In this case, it is not so much that the press is intruding into Hollande's private life, but rather that Hollande has allowed his private life to intrude into his public office - and has signally failed subsequently to limit the damage and try to control the situation.

As a small example, today there's an article in Midi Libre about Gayet being appointed by the culture ministry to the jury that decides who gets the paid residencies in the cultural annex in Rome - only for the announcement to be "de-announced" within a couple of hours. Isn't there SOMEONE in the French Govt who can do an electronic search of any proposed announcements by government departments to flag up any occurrences of the names "Gayet" or "Trierweiler" to stop these kinds of faux pas? It makes one want to go up to the president, shake him vigorously by the shoulders and say "FFS, GET A GRIP!"

Hollande is supposed to be a seasoned, career politician: this whole episode makes him look indecisive, ineffectual and a laughing stock.

[Thibault]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]I don't have a very high opinion of politicians in general, Thibault, so I'm not going to answer that. :-)

[/quote]

Foiled again LOL

[woolybanana]

Don't take any notice of Norman's politics; they are about as serious as little girls planning the wardrobe for their Barbie dolls' tea party.

[PaulT]

Do you think Obama will send Michelle to her mums whilst Hollande is in the White House?

[Gardian]

Is it just me, or have you all got two Flamby threads going?

[NormanH]

I have great respect for Clement Attlee (In answer  to an earlier post)

[PaulT]

'Is it just me, or have you all got two Flamby threads going? '

No, it is double vision

[woolybanana]

Is it just me or have you all got two Flamby threads going?

[Rabbie]

It's not you, it seems to be the same thread displaying twice

[Martin963]

Thanks Norman (for explaining what you meant).

Certainly TF1 (which you'd probably regard as lower than the gutter) devoted a big chunk to the actual policies and proposals at 20.00 on Tuesday.   Certainly what I've seen on French TV (which we have here in Devon) did give a fair crack of the whip to the "political" element of the conference.

But as others have said,  any muddying of the waters is the fault of Monsieur Patapouf,  not the media....

[Pickles]

According Midi Libre, he hasn't even had the decency to visit her in hospital ...

[Martin963]

Well I don't stick up for M Patapouf very often,  but given the situation would YOU go and see her?

I imagine it would be similar to visiting a spitting cobra!

[mint]

[quote user="Martin963"]Well I don't stick up for M Patapouf very often,  but given the situation would YOU go and see her?

I imagine it would be similar to visiting a spitting cobra!
[/quote]

Yeah, far enough away from spitting distance higly recommended [:D]