French Press Review
Issued on: Modified:
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son Jean as President of the La Défense business district's authority is on the front pages of several papers. The left-leaning paper Libération is calling for him to stand down.
You can see the French press review with James Creedon on weekday mornings at 7.10am, Paris time.
Unedited television script
The son of the French President has been elected to the authority that presides over Paris’s business district, La Défense, much to the disgust of the left-leaning daily Libération. “My Daddy, he’s the President,” reads its front page headline. At just 23 years of age and while in just his second year of law school, Jean Sarkozy was elected President of the Public Establishment for la Défense. Sarkozy the younger has been a local representative in the Haute-Seine district (the wealthiest “département” in France) for the past two years but the paper decries his lack of experience and likens the election to “Ancien Régime nepotism”. It’s editorial calls him the Prince Sarkozy and calls on him to stand down.
Le Parisien is somewhat more measured in its coverage of the story. It speaks of Jean Sarkozy’s striking similarity to his father. “When you hear himThe paper says when you hear him speak, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s his father… They have same expressions, the same tone of voice, similar turns of phrase and arguments,” the paper says. Le Parisien interviews the young politician who defends his election saying it can’t be called nepotism seeing as he was not appointed to the position. “Whatever I do, I’ll be criticized because my name is Jean Sarkozy,” he says.
Other stories covered in today’s French press review
Marie-Pascal Treiber speaks about her ex-husband, the fugative Jean-Pierre Treiber, saying « I lived with a pervert ». She is to release a book in which she recounts a life spent in the shadow of a manipulative husband. Treiber dramatically escaped from prison over a month ago having sealed himself inside a cardboard box. He has since then been on the run. He was being held on charges of murdering Géraldine Giraud and Katia Lherbier, the former being the daughter of well-known French actor, Roland Giraud.
The Catholic newspaper leads with the success of France’s civil partnership arrangement known as the PACS (Pacte civile de solidarité). The PACS was introduced ten years ago and allows for a civil union between heterosexual or homosexual couples. It’s popularity increased by 43% between 2007 and 2008. Meanwhile, the institution of marriage is on the decline.
The paper says that the Pacs worries Catholics for two reasons. First of all, it could be seen as step on the way to fully legalizing gay marriage. Secondly, it is weakening the institution of marriage itself because many heterosexual couples view it as an alternative.
60% of population does not intend to get the swine flu vaccination. Strangely it’s the over 60s who appear most willing to get the vaccine although they’re at the lowest risk.
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