The Sarkozy rumour update

There was little air left to breathe in the shoe-box-like briefing room in the street beside the Elysée palace this morning. Dozens of reporters had packed into the tight space for the delayed weekly briefing by President Sarkozy's spokesman. It was not the president's action on international poverty day that interested them, nor his commiseration with the defeated national rugby side.  We were all there of course because of The Rumour. And of course, we got nothing.

David Martinon, the young diplomat who is Sarkozy's spokesman, batted off questions on the presidential marriage with the fastidious disdain that graduates of the Ecole Nationale d 'Administration (ENA) do so well. "I have strictly no comment to make," was all he would say.  "Would you care to philosophize on the refusal to comment on these reports?" asked one frustrated scribe. "I haven't any comment," came the answer.   

For almost a week, newsrooms and the internet have been buzzing with word that Nicolas and Cécilia were about to make their separation formal. Most of the traditional media remain squeamish about touching the subject of their ruler's private life. A couple of outlets have reported divorce announcements that have not materialised while others, such as Libération today, have chosen to debate the ethics of rumour-reporting as a way of conveying the gossip without tarnishing their principles.

Libé reports tens of thousands of visits to items on the rumour on its internet site, but it has still not deigned to investigate the state of the couple in the newspaper. Instead, it has opened a forum on the theme : "Should we talk about it or not?".

So there's nothing to report beyond noting that Cécilia Sarkozy has not appeared at any function as the president's spouse since Bastille Day in July. Martinon confirmed today that she will not go with him on a state visit to Morocco next week. Normally the première dame would be there.

So what, some may say. In contrast to my high-minded French colleagues, who are hapy to gossip over dinner but not touch the subject in print, I would say that the state of the marriage of the head of state and chief executive does have a bearing on public life and citizens are entitled to hear about it. This is especially the case since Sarkozy was so destabilised during his wife's last absence in 2005, when he was Interior Minister and would-be president.

Comments

[Nero Etblanc]

Is she trying to punish him for something, or is she just a bit barmy?

[The 3rd Column]

Agree with Charles! When that private life begins to infringe on national interests and the French start to feel that the President's performance is affected by the problems he has with his wife or that national prestige starts to take a beating, etc., the French might begin to grumble, after all taxpayers spend money on her too being the wife of President Sarkozy but until then I say back off.

I do believe however that Cecilia should be given a huge benefit of the doubt, her privacy must be respected. So far, the French public at large still believe she should be left alone. Her husband is doing the tasks expected of him as the nation's chief executive and so in general, the public's tendency is to say, back off.

Cecilia is lucky in a way because in America or in the UK, she would have already been brought to the gutter level. Just look at Charles Bremner, he's already stirring shit but must say can't blame him - writing about Sarkozy and Cecilia turmoil is his bread and butter.

[azloon]

3rd column:

the wife of your(?) president is a semi-public official: she has participated in a foreign policy intitiative, insulted the family of important ally, but, first and most important, chose her life by marrying a public official.

CB, don't be deterred by this quirky gallic sensitivity toward those who plainly don't deserve it. granting ceci an unlimited personal privacy exemption is like giving french public transportation employees six months of yearly vacation (they have four now, yes?).

i think we may discover before all this is over that ceci is experiencing significant mental health problems. so the sooner she gets her "out," the better for all, imnsho.

[Valentin]

I think that's just old Sarko ad machine keeping him on the front page. The noise is so big that no one speaks about the thursday strike anymore, for instance.

[Louise]

I agree that this is a suitable subject for public comment and question - particularly as she went back to his side presumably to help him win more votes in what must now be seen as a deeply cynical move. What is not good is to have the speculation go on for too long when there are much more important policy issues to discuss. Cecilia should be left in peace if she does leave Sarkozy but, whilst she is his official partner, showing her distaste for the activities that come with his job is unacceptable. I am sure the benefits outweigh the hardly onerous social obligations and if they do not then she should leave.

[Frank Schnittger]

There was a time when The Times showed a similar distain for the tittle-tattle of the gutter press.

Cécilia, as far as I am aware, didn't sign up to be "First Lady" when she married Sarkozy. There is no such position in any constitution that I am aware of in any case. It is largely the creation of the media who want to spice up dull political stories with a little sex, intrigue and glamour.

Unless she is in receipt of a public salary she owes the public no service. If she wants to keep the details of her married life private, then so be it. Sarkozy’s Presidency should be judged on its own merits, and whether or not she is part of his life is neither here nor there.

The line that she is fair game because their relationship effects his performance on the job is a typical chauvinistic self-serving media conceit. Only Sarkozy was elected, only Sarkozy is answerable for his performance to the public.

If Sarkozy wants to use her as an excuse for his own performance, then that reflects on his character, not hers. (The case of Segolene and her partner is radically different because both hold important public offices).

But who is creating this story? Is it Sarkozy’s media handlers, or his detractors? I would hold Sarkozy accountable if his team is making their relationship a public issue. Otherwise it is none of our business, and The Times would be better employed reporting on more serious issues – like the World Cup!

[azloon]

Frank -- i respect your position, but itsounds to me a little like defending corporal punishment in schools, or putting skirts on piano legs.

[Dot KING]

Who knows where Mme Sarkozy is at present, seen in Geneva last week, not seen anywhere where you might expect her to be.
If she's in hiding, that's fine, it's also wise, as last time she fled the nest, the RG were sent to bring her back - who paid for that?
At first she had an Elysée credit card for "incidental expenses" which after a fairly muffled public protest she gave back.
Her non-appearance at her husband's side is of course not the behaviour expected of a president's wife, but as she hasn't wanted to be a president's wife, and that for a long time (it's been clearly visible, she physically recoils from him), then her refusal to jouer la comédie does her credit.
He doesn't seem too embarrassed by it all and there are plenty of "irreductibles" who will still believe he's where he should be, with or without Cécilia.

[Lilly]

“Frank -- i respect your position, but itsounds to me a little like defending corporal punishment in schools, or putting skirts on piano legs.” (Azloon)

Azloon, do you talk of ‘the impossible’, i.e. to stop the public interest in Sarkozy’s private matters or just the funny ending of Frank Schnittger’s comment?

“The Times would be better employed reporting on more serious issues – like the World Cup!” (F. Schnittger)

I thought this was funny, indeed! The World Cup… why not report on the mushroom season, Indian summer and hunting? – Thursday might have to offer some real serious discussion.

BTW: There was one commentator on “Sarkozy’s lady vanishes” who said it was ‘not possible’ for Sarkozy to get divorced while President. If that is true, why all the speculation on the subject? Cecilia’s public disappearance seems to suggest their separation but why and how give a public statement? Very embarrassing…

[Frank Schnittger]

Azloon - I did rather adopt a mock pompous Times (The Thunderer) tone of yore. I'm glad you picked it up. However, the Puritanism you refer to is largely new - that somehow people are accountable to the public for the wives they choose - and that those wives should be sacrificed if they fail to measure up to some public standard of statesmanlike conduct – as others here have suggested.

Perhaps Cécilia fell in love with the Man rather than with the President. Perhaps she tried to perform some public duties (e.g. Libya) and realised she wasn’t up to the job. Not everyone is cut out for living in the goldfish bowl that is public office nowadays.

Perhaps I am old fashioned enough to believe that when you marry someone you marry them for what they are and not for what you might want them to become. Cécilia too has rights, as a wife and private citizen. She didn’t become public property when her husband was elected, and they can choose to stay together or not on their own terms.

It seems to me to be a remarkable immaturity in people when they insist on the right not only to elect people, but to cast judgement on their spouses as well, going s far as to demand that their spouse should be dumped.

Do I have the right to tell you to dump your wife if I don’t like her? Does your employer have the right to tell you to dump your wife if she doesn’t conform to the corporate image? That is totalitarianism, not democracy, and liberal democracy has always insisted on a distinction between the public and private sphere.

This isn’t a case of L’Exception Française. It is first year political science theory. The demand that politics should be turned into some sort of reality TV game show where all relationships are fair game is a media driven conceit that titillates those with no interest in politics and who want to reduce everything to soap opera proportions.

Constitutions are carefully written documents which attempt to balance power and accountability between a number of different institutions and procedures – elections, confirmation hearing, votes of confidence, legislative instruments, independent courts etc.

The media and private corporations are generally not ascribed a formal role in this process, and yet are becoming increasing influential in their own right. Once you grant them the right to intrude in the private life of your President, you have also ceded all rights to a private life of your own.

Grow up, get used to it. Cécilia is a person in her own right and doesn’t require your approval or disapproval. Long live individuality and a refusal to become some kind of identikit Stepford wife type First Lady. Those who cannot tolerate individuality in others generally live in morbid fear of their own individuality.

[Actu75]

Is it because I’m French that I largely agree with Franck Shnittger’s post ? Maybe not that much.
I am afraid Mr Bremner holds (quite unusually) to a rather outdated opposition betwin the truth-telling independant english (oups! I nearly wrote “anglo-saxon”) press and the alway gossiping never revealing gallic style of political journalism.
Things have largely changed in this country and inside the medias corporation conercnig these issues as the author of this blog has rightfuly reported previously. Private life has become a frequent subject of publication or discussion. Libération today choses to discuss rather than to report. Old style hypocrisy maybe. (Just like when french newspapers were printing pages about the Windsor’s affair but only under the argument that these strange englishmen and their horrible guttar press were finally so funny with their Simpsons’-like royal family).
Libé’s editor justified his positions saying that when there is no news ther is nothing to print. Charles Bremner implicitely objects that there is no news when you do not go to get it. On that hand there is still a part of hypocrisy in the french press’s attitude. But on the other hand a large part of the world-exclusive- breaking “news” on private lives of allegated public interest regularly published or broadcasted by british medias finally prove to be- at best- mere speculations.
Hypocrisy actually lies in the fact that british medias (still more thant the french) make private lives a matter of public interest whenever they decide it is in their interest. And in most of the case it applies to ordinary people. Ask the Mac Canns. Or ask any of the more anonymous protagonists of the crime&sex&money stories who are put under night& day watch or offered considerable amounts of money to be exposed. But surely I am confusing The Sun & The Times, Sky News & the BBC.
One last question regarding where news, respect and hypocrisy respectively begin: how come that in a country proud of publishing anything that is news, not a single paper dares or wished publishing one of the Muhammad’s drawings that were the source of a worldwide controversy? Respect surely.

PS. Why doesn’t any one REALLY reports the big sports information of the week-end?: “South Africa has won the RWC”

[rocket]

There is something which seems very odd to me in this story. Yet something very arrogantly French. Granted the private life of this woman is no one's business but hers except for the fact that when you are the spouse of the President of a country there are certain duties the come with that fact. If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.

This don't seem to apply in France

Cécilia Sarkozy didn't hesitate to grab headlines when she flew to Libya for "on ne sait toujours pas pourquoi et avec quelles contreparties".

As far as for those who believe that France respects the private life of it's elected officials. GIVE ME A BREAK!

The only reason that the French Press never "fouiner" into the private lives of their officials before is that they were too much of cowards to do it, knowing that they would be castigated and punished by the those who have the "mainmise" on centralized French life. That means the government.

Does anyone remember the threats of Georges Marchais on the night of the Socialist victory in 1981 in relation to Jean Pierre Elkabbach. Only possible in France and the USSR et al at that time

Don't tell me about any moral highground. What a joke!

Now thank God, thanks to the internet, etc and France finally looking at how Democracy works outside of their own "nombril" the press is taking certain risks. It's still a joke but at least they are trying.

Wasn't the French public informed of the death of Pompidou only a day or so after he died. Maybe the Cartesian mind would argue that the doctors were waiting for the body to be cold before making an announcement.

Frank

"Cécilia, as far as I am aware, didn't sign up to be "First Lady" when she married Sarkozy."

Then she should get the F**k out!

[Daniel Strohl]

Frank,

"Otherwise it is none of our business"

Perfectly true !

[rocket]

Lilly

"Cecilia’s public disappearance seems to suggest their separation but why and how give a public statement? Very embarrassing…"

The French always worried about appearances. A friend of mine amazed at how many mirrors there are in this country and how many people look at themselves as they walk by reflective windows.

Christ! Our President chocked on a pretzel and nearly died and it was announced to the public!

An answer to your question.

JUST DO IT!

[azloon]

Lilly -- i believe Frank really believes that hunting, mushrooms, and rugby are more appropriate topics of disscussion than ceci's no-show. Tell me if i am wrong, Frank. but really, i think he just thinks the personal stuff is offensive.

Pesonally, i don't exert much effort thinking about the relative merits of journalistic topics: ceci, mushrooms, indian summer, national breast awareness day, toutes les subjets agreable pour le journal. :)

p.s. i confess to having a weakness for the gooey ones, to use Dot's term.

[Maggie G]

The fact that she clearly doesn't want to be "a presidents's wife" doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't want to be "Sarkozy's wife". She clearly doesn't want to be some Diana-like media property, and her absences from her husband's side can quite adequately be explained by that.

Of course it's possible that the rumours that she wants to leave him are correct, but if they are based only on the fact that she doesn't want to play the role of first lady, the rumours could be totally wrong.

I agree with the 3rd Column when he says, "I do believe however that Cecilia should be given a huge benefit of the doubt, her privacy must be respected" and I agree with Frank that there's no law anywhere saying that a president's wife has to play the role of first lady if the role doesn't interest her.

[Actu75]

Is it because I’m French that I largely agree with Franck Shnittger’s post ? Maybe not that much.
I am afraid Mr Bremner holds (quite unusually) to a rather outdated opposition betwin the truth-telling independant english (oups! I nearly wrote “anglo-saxon”) press and the alway gossiping never revealing gallic style of political journalism. Things have largely changed in this country and inside the medias corporation concerning these issues, as the author of this blog has rightfully reported previously. Private life has become a frequent subject of publication or discussion.
Libération today choses to discuss rather than to report. Old style hypocrisy maybe. (Just like when french newspapers were printing pages about the Windsor’s affairs but only under the argument that these strange Englishmen and their horrible guttar press were finally so funny with their Simpsons’-like royal family).
Libé’s editor justified his positions saying that when there is no news ther is nothing to print. Charles Bremner implicitly objects that there is no news when you do not go to get it. On that hand there is still a part of hypocrisy in the french press’s attitude. But on the other hand a large part of the world-exclusive- breaking “news” on private lives of allegated public interest regularly published or broadcasted by british medias finally prove to be- at best- mere speculations.
Hypocrisy actually lies in the fact that british medias (still more thant he french) make private lives a matter of public interest whenever they decide it is in their interest. And in most of the cases it applies to ordinary people. Ask the Mac Canns. Or ask any of the more anonymous protagonists of the crime&sex&money stories who are put under night& day watch or offered considerable amounts of money to be exposed. But surely I am confusing The Sun & The Times, Sky News & the BBC.
One last question regarding where news, repect and hypocrisy respectively begin: how come that in a country proud of publishing anything that is news, not a single paper dares or wished publishing one of the Muhammad’s drawings that were the source of a worldwide controversy? Respect surely.

PS. Why doesn’t any one REALLY reports the big sports information of the week-end?: “South Africa has won the RWC”

[Blue Hands John]

Good riddance.

The Attali pre-report is much more interesting though.

[Lilly]

"Just do it!"(Rocket)

Rocket,

why are you so impatient about this announcement?

Is it legally possible for the President to get divorced? An answer, anyone?

If it's not possible, why get excited about that unhappy couple, i.e. the President and his wife?

Why would they announce that they don't love one another anymore, if that is the case? - To satisfy the media or our lowly curiosity?! (I am curious about it, too but don't claim political seriousness in that matter.)

[Robert Marchenoir]

There is obviously a big problem with Cecilia. Heads of state's wives have certain duties of representation.

Suppose she is a shrinking violet, and does not feel like entertaining presidents and kings.

Or suppose she is a feminist, who does not want to be in tow of her husband.

Very well, then. Let her keep out of the picture entirely. I am sure the French could stomach her invisibility, and heads of state would all be treated the same, so presumably no diplomatic sentitivities would be offended.

If she were really that independant woman feminists talk about, she would take up a job, write books, be a lawyer or something.

Again, the French would have no problem with that. Prime minister Lionel Jospin's wife was a known philosopher and quite an independant woman. Nobody seemed to object, as far as I remember.

The problem, with Cécila Sarkozy, is that sometimes she is very much in the picture and claims an active role (Libya), sometimes she shows up but ostensibly refuses to join (the election day, when she did not vote), sometimes she promises to come and does not (the Bushes), sometimes she is downright offensive to others (not showing up in Bulgaria to receive a medal that was awarded to her for her action in Libya).

She obviously behaves like a spoilt child. This is getting obnoxious and embarrassing. They should split for good.

[richard jones]

To Azloon,

A good source says C. was in Geneva talking to neurologists and neuropsychologists of international repute, taking two or three appointments a day.

[azloon]

i didn't sign up for having my telephone tapped but 9/11 has made this a much less remote possibility than it ever was before. ceci didn't sign up for the job of french president's wife. that's just the way things went down. for her and me. and for all of us.

so what to do? if she hadn't displayed such extrordinary ambivalence about what she was supposed to be doing (libya, les vacances, bulgaria), she might be receiving more sympathy for her plight. now, howver, her options are limited.

perhaps, she and sarko could and should have requested a dispensation of sorts from all media covering sarko, by which she would have been allowed to stay TOTALLY out of the picture for a variety of possible reasons: a personality disorder, morbid sensitivity, agoraphobia, depression, being a famous politician's illegitimate daughter, whatever.

media are not totally immune to such requests, so that, for instance, in this country, media respect the privacy of politicians children. so, if she were presented as someone with exceptional circumstance -- certain problemes psychologique, she could conceivably be spared the scrutiny and criticism she is suffering presently. having it both ways (doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants, appearing to be an immature, spoiled brat) won't hack it.

if on the other hand, she is a normal, mentally healthy adult, and simply doesn't like the consequences of being married to sarko for whatever reason, her choices are obvious:

slip out the back, jack,
have a new plan, stan,
don't need to be coy, roy,
just set yourself free.

if she really does like him, he'll run to her in NY or Geneva or wherever she is when his term is over.

no biggie.

[Dominique]

Lilly,

What i heard is that it is impossible for a president to go in front of a judge. And you may still need a judge to get divorced eventhough the procedure was very much simplified nowadays.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proc%C3%A9dure_de_divorce

This is getting interesting indeed.

[Actu75]

*Sorry for my double post...
*Ah Rocket... I can't post here too often but what a glorious specimen you are indeed. Are you the guy who invented the "cheese eating surrender monkey "expression?
Nevertheless I would agree on your statement concerning Cecilia, Lybia and the divorce. It cannot be public then private. In and out. However the only remaining question might be one of timing.
But since you love coming back to the good old days of Reagan, the Socialists in France and the USSR, may I remind you that french medias political neutrality (or independance or freedom) had suffered more until 1981 from the successive conservative administrations, than from the volubile Marchais?
By the way were you among those who you believed when Mitterrand was elected that the russsian tanks would soon park free in the Invalides and the red flag would fly over the Arc de Triomphe?

[Sandrine]

I'm totally with you on this one Rocket !

I'm sorry Frank, this woman is not just some woman who would happen to be too shy. She wanted to have a role to play (ie les infirmières bulgares and we know she half-decided who her husband should choose as counselors or ministers, everybody knows that) and she had it.

Now she can't just disappear and cry that she has a right not to say anything about her disappearance.

People who think that's a private matter are wrong. She is the president's wife, she has some duties, if she didn't want them, she should have "got the F**k out!" (as Rocket gently said) way BEFORE the election.

Now I just wish they say it already so that we (and they) can MOVE ON !

[christopher muir]

French electors may well have grounds for complaint. It looks like they got one for the price of two.

[azloon]

[As president, Mr. Sarkozy enjoys full immunity from prosecution, and under a law expanded last February the immunity includes all civil actions as well. That means that he would have to agree to the divorce for it to proceed. “Even if Cécilia Sarkozy wants to initiate divorce proceedings, she cannot, unless it is a joint request by the two parties,” said Guy Carcassonne, a constitutional law expert.] NY Times online, monday pm.

[azloon]

[“This may not be as important as the debate over retirement, the debt or social security,” said Daniel Schneidermann, the media columnist for the left-leaning newspaper Libération. “But this is information that the citizens of France deserve to know.”] same NYT article

[rocket]

Sandrine

"Now I just wish they say it already so that we (and they) can MOVE ON !"

Exactly. Get it over with and let's move on. The guy has a country to run here and this whole story whether people want to admit it or not does have an influence on the daily running of the country. Remember Clinton's BJ in the Oval Office. The US gov't shut down for a year!

I don't believe that any announcement will come until after "le movement social jeudi par une certain categorie de personnel"

Bcp de "rapport de forces en France" and the gov't doesn't want to see "ceux qui lutte" in the streets "scander des slogans d'ordre personnel" Very bad for the image of the President. Plus a large number of people who do not hesitate to kick someone when they are down. By this I mean the French Unions.

Lilly

"why are you so impatient about this announcement?"

For the above reasons

"La France n'est pas un parc d'attraction". - JP Raffarin

I totally agree with Robert.

Cécilia doesn't seem to be such an independent woman.

"If she were really that independant woman feminists talk about, she would take up a job, write books, be a lawyer or something."

Certain people on this blog don't seem to understand that there are responsibilities to assume if one is the spouse of a President etc. What is she trying to prove by this wet and wild attitude. And if we've got it all wrong about her, why doesn't she set the record straight. I wouldn't be surprised once this is all over to see her leave France. She has already done it once.

Actu75

Are you the guy who invented the "cheese eating surrender monkey "expression?

Please try to get over it. I suppose you like soft and cuddly answers.

"may I remind you that French medias political neutrality (or independance or freedom) had suffered more until 1981 from the successive conservative administrations, than from the volubile Marchais?"

Totally aware of muzzling the press by ALL French governments whether they be left or right. I USED Pompidou as an example and could also use May 68 when the radios no longer could broadcast events live. I can add hundreds of other examples such as the Paris Massacre of 1961

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961

"Despite these raids, 4,000 to 5,000 people succeeded in demonstrating peacefully on the Grands Boulevards from République to Opéra, without incident. Blocked at Opéra by police forces, the demonstrators backtracked. Reaching the Rex cinema (at the same site as the Rex Club on the current "Grands Boulevards"), the police opened fire on the crowd and charged, leading to several deaths. On the Neuilly bridge (separating Paris from the suburbs), the police detachments and FPA members also shot at the crowd, killing some. Algerians were thrown into and drowned in the Seine at points across the city and its suburbs, most notably at the Saint-Michel bridge in the centre of Paris and near the Prefecture of Police, very close to Notre Dame de Paris."

Glorieux non.

[richard jones]

We've already seen how that 'ancien régime' law providing presidential protection kept Chiraq the Corrupt out of the courts of any instance for two decades. Hopefully this law will soon be repealed and 'les Sarkos' can divorce or whatever they want to do.
It is amusing that here in Athens the Greeks are so indoctrinated with the sexual 'laissez faire' attitudes of French politicians past and present that they cannot see what all the fuss is about.
My large Genevoise family is being typically Calvinist saying Ceci should shut up, put up with him, at least in public until his presidential term is nearly over and then put the issue up as a factor, if and when, Sarko runs again.

[Valentin]

Rocket:
"Glorieux non."

Democracy and moeurs evolved a lot since the '60s. We're living times when the slightest booboo on a demonstrator's nosetip can cause a government to fall...

[Peter Athey]

We never used to have any of this soul-searching with the soviet first ladies. My recollection is that Mme Khrushchev remained an anonymous figure in the 1960's press. Even the UK tabloids left her alone and they will stop at nothing. She didn't appear to have been a fashion model for anything - unless it was for promoting Soviet potatos (but I never saw any of those ads).

My suggestion is that all first ladies should, by law, resemble her and then we would all be left in peace.

[Dot KING]

David Martinon must be finding himself in an uncomfortable situation - from watching the news a the time, I understand that he is a presidential chouchou, following Cécilia's recommendation - he is also the person "parachuted" into candidature for Neuilly, where until Sarkozy announced it to the militants there, they thought they had a perfectly good candidate in situ (so did the candidate).
Sarkozy said it would be a poor man indeed who didn't prepare his succession, and so saying over-rode the wishes of his own party in his own constituency. There were chants of "Martinon non non non" from les Dégoutés de Neuilly.
For an Elysée spokesman, Martinon proves rather inarticulate in any case.

From the beginning Sarkozy has behaved like a control freak, being everywhere, speaking for everyone, often contradicting, with a smirk, his own ministers.
I'm waiting to see what happens when a control freak sees that control is slipping from him. Cécilia is the tip of the iceberg.
I have the radio on beside me, France Inter - Bernard Laporte announces that if he doesn't like being minster for sport, then he'll leave - he will always have that freedom. I quote: "Nicola Sarkozy est prévenu."

[Daniel Strohl]

Dot King,

"I quote: "Nicola Sarkozy est prévenu."

This exquisite gentleman Laporte does even try to blackmail the President !

[Dot KING]

Daniel, et nous pensions que Enrico Macias était le seul qui pouvait faire chanter le président! laï laï laî laï :) c'est finalement peut-être juste une question de mauvaises fréquentations . . .

[Dot KING]

Sarkozy citation d'aujourd'hui, à Bordeaux en compagnie d'Alain Juppé "lui est un ancien premier ministre et moi, je suis chef d'état"

Levez la main tous ceux qui avaient oublié . . .
lest we forget

[Valentin]

"Sarkozy citation d'aujourd'hui, à Bordeaux "

Source please ? :)

[Actu75]

Rocket
No need to quote Wiki to remind me of October 1961 17th (I read Daeninkx and Einaudi's work a long time ago).
The date is now officially recognised (celebrations), investigated, documented (books, films). Yes it was a day of shame and it was largely silenced (not totally however and your quote of Wiki is incomplete) then eclisped later by the deaths of french communists demonstrators at the Metro Charonne.
French medias too reverent to the political powers? Yes. Always and them only? Absurd.
Let's focus on your exemple. In 1961 France (the metropole) was in a situation of civil war ("la sale guerre"). It explains but does not excuse the medias&public silence, indifference or ignorance.
But it might not be such an exclusive gallic characteristic. Medias in countries with glorious traditions of investigating journalism (and there is no question that UK & the US top the list) also fail to investigate properly and question the dominant/official course in similar or specific contexts. I do not have "hundreds" of exemples as you lucky guy. But quite a few though, where it would appear that the most lucid voices are sometimes the most lonely ones.
Let's go back again to 1961.What level of investigation did newspapers of the southern states of the USA achieve at that time on racial crimes& discrimination?
And more recently how many leading medias seriously questioned the weapons of mass destruction files or the dominos of democracy theory before the US entered a wrong-founded and wrong-lead war in Iraq?
Glorious isn't it?

[Dot KING]

Valentin: source: France Inter News - him saying it, not me quoting someone quoting him

[Valentin]

Milady:
sauf le respect que je vous dois: cela s'appelle du "bouche à l'oreille", since out of context and totally unverifiable.
I prefer written records even put into rhyme: scripta manent, comme disaient les anciens.

Et de deux ! :)

[Dot KING]

Valentin, je suggère: franceinter.com, et l'écoute des infos d'hier en décallé. Soit le flash de midi (incisé dans "le fou du roi" - à 12h ou midi pour être clair) ou les infos de 13h.
Comme ça vous l'entendrez avec vos propres petites oreilles recalcitrantes.
Un jour de congé pour son talentueux "nègre"? Laissé à lui même, il n'est pas une lumière, votre Sarko.

[Dot KING]

Valentin, it is verifiable, simply go on to franceinter.com and listen to the broadcast en décallé, yesterday (16th oct 2007) either on the midday flash or 13h news programme - you will hear your chouchou's voice saying those words, in the context of a presidential visit to a Bordeaux hospital. Perhaps his delightful, très charmant speech-writer, Mr Gainaud was having a day off??
He said it, I can't help it if we don't listen to the same radio stations. You can be tiresome sometimes :(

[Valentin]

"You can be tiresome sometimes"

No more than you antisarkozyste :)

I'll go look up the website: me, I'm not ill-willed :)

[rocket]

Actu75

Sorry for late response but I put up a lot of posts "que je dois revoir ma comptabilité"

You are absolutely right about abuses as you spoke in the South of the US. (In the north also) This is something we need to come to terms with and I believe we are "trying" to do it. Yet it persists on both sides you know. We can't close our eyes and say Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité et la problème doesn't exist. C'est cela que je reproche à la france.

If you don't want to deal with a problem in France you just say it doesn't exist et voilà!

I also believe that there has been too much coziness between the press and the governements in France. But now I have to go to the market so I will stop the commentary for the moment.