“France ‘very’ grateful to Bongo,” reads the headline in today’s Libération, a left-leaning paper. Many have said that the death of Gabon’s President of 41 years marks the end of an era in chummy post-colonial relations between African leaders and France, summed up by the expression ‘Françafrique’. Inside, the editorial is cynical. The very presence of Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac at yesterday’s funeral in Libreville shows continuity, the paper says. However, it concedes that realistically, a complete break in relations between France and certain African regimes would not lead to peaceful democracies but quite likely to other dictatorships supported by other powers. On the other hand, says Libération, what is unacceptable is the flow of corrupt money robbed from the African people that made its way into the pockets of French politicians. This is a reference to repeated claims in the press that Bongo financed many French politicians during his four decades in power. While Françafrique is slowly dissolving, the corruption remains, concludes Libération. The Communist newspaper, L’Humanité, notes that Nicolas Sarkozy has had better welcomes than the one he received yesterday in Libreville. The crowd openly booed the French President. “Our wood, our petrol, our magnesium, we’ve given you everything,” cried one member of the crowd. Le Monde also picks up on the criticisms of Françafrique in light of Bongo’s funeral. A cartoon cheekily shows a suitcase full of cash in place of Bongo’s coffin. In the background, you can see shadowy French political figures, their faces concealed by hundred dollar bills!

Elsewhere in the French press, Nicolas Sarkozy’s first ever address to the French Parliament is being discussed. Previously, under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, a President could not address the Parliament in order to maintain the integrity of the separation of powers. A reform last year scrapped this provision and Sarkozy is to address French MPs and Senators at Versailles next Monday, in a style similar to the State of the Union address made by the US President to Congress. Le Figaro reports on the divisions within the Socialist Party as a result of this. What’s new, you might say! The main opposition party had considered boycotting the Versailles address, like the Europe Ecology and Communist parties. In the end, they will attend but won’t participate in the debate that follows the speech seeing as the President will have left the building. The Catholic newspaper, La Croix, features an interview with a Constitutional lawyer who says the opposition is overreacting. Addressing the Parliament does nothing to modify the President’s powers. What’s more, it would be undignified and in bad taste, this professor believes, for the President to be forced to respond to angry MPs after a keynote address.

From Versailles to Marseille, where local police are dealing with bizarre case. Le Parisien reports that a young woman who does not know her identity was found by police in a local station. She was carrying a sports bag but had no clues as to her identity on her person. It later turned out that she speaks five languages fluently. She may not know her identity but has memories of living abroad. Apart from French, she speaks English, German, Italian and Luxemburgish.

In the cinema section of Libération, there’s a feature on “The Milk of Sorrows”, a Peruvian film in French cinemas from today. It’s the story of a woman who uses a potato as a chastity belt! The film, of course, is about much more than this singular detail… It won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival deals with heavyweight issues such as memory and acceptance of your past. The title is a reference to sorrows being passed from mother to child through breastfeeding.

Libération also carries a story about the President and Manger of football club, Olympique Marseille, Pape Diouf. Diouf is very popular with supporters but not so popular with shareholders. He has a very authoritarian reputation. The biggest shareholder of OM, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, has summoned Diouf to Switzerland today. Speculation is rife that the manager may be fired.