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Latest update: 25/01/2011
- French Press Review - G20 - G8 - Nicolas Sarkozy
Sarkozy aiming to charm the press corps?
FRENCH PAPERS, Tues., 25/1/2011: Sarkozy announced his goals for France's Presidency of the G8 and G20 yesterday in great pomp at the Elysée Palace. Les Echos and Le Figaro react positively while Libération and l'Humanité are more sceptical. Also, Le Parisien recounts Sarkozy's attempt to charm journalists with just 15 months to go before the Presidential election.
Later in the press review, we look at analysis in Le Parisien of why Sarkozy chitchatted at length with journalists around the buffet table at the Elysée Palace yesterday. After his press conference on goals for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits, Sarkozy spent a considerable amount of time hobnobbing… Is Sarkozy aiming to charm the press corps?
Editorials in the French papers this morning contrast somewhat in reaction to Sarkozy’s speech. Le Figaro says with everything he announced he will no longer be a “hyperpresident”, instead he will be a “suprapresident”. This was a reference to the international stature hopes to accrue from presiding over the G8 and G20 this year. The paper also points out that a probable rival for the 2012 Presidential race, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, will henceforth be working to increase his credibility on national issues (should he, as is presumed, announce his candidacy for the Socialist Party nomination). For Sarkozy, it is the exact opposite as he hopes to focus more on international issues in the coming 12 months.
Libération says that yesterday’s performance by Sarkozy was bad news for the Socialist Party. “How do you oppose a man who is fighting for international regulation? How, when you’re on the left, do you fight a man who wants to fight speculation on food markets because it leads to creates hunger riots…
How, when you’re on the left, do you fight a man who has the same vision as Domique Strauss-Kahn?”
The Communist paper l’Humanité doesn’t mince its words. It’s headline reads, “Behind the posturing, an imposter” and goes on, in critical terms, to say, “The Head of State did not speak about the situation in France. He claims he wants to regulate global capitalism but is advancing with neoliberal measures. He attempted to justify the complicit silence of French authorities regarding the regime of Ben Ali (in Tunisia).”
We finish with an article in Le Parisien about Alassane Ouattara’s illegitimate son who is a football player in the second division in France. Also, a cartoon in Le Monde suggests that Ouattara is being forgotten about – even his hotel concierge has forgotten his name, the cartoon suggests.
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