French weekly magazines review

President François Hollande’s move to bring morality to public life in France, in the wake of the Jérôme Cahuzac tax fraud scandal, falls flat and sparks a backlash from his political enemies. This week’s magazines relay the negativity felt across the political divide, due to Hollande’s moralization drive.

“The Cahuzac mess,” shouts Le Canard Enchaîné.

Le Canard is the satirical paper which broke the news that Cahuzac, the slayer of tax fraudsters, was about to confess that he doesn’t pay his own. He also lied to the President and to parliament about his secret accounts in Switzerland and Singapore.

According to the weekly, it was an earthquake; a tsunami; a kind of neutron bomb, with a stench so strong that it forced Hollande’s enemies to proclaim the death of the French Fifth Republic.

As President Hollande rolled out his emergency morality plan, Le Figaro was quick to dismiss it as “Lies of the Republic." The right-wing weekly accuses the President’s office of opportunism and of trying to shield Hollande from the scandal.

“Weak man,” bellows L’Express in its cover page story, the large caption in capital letters partly covering a photograph of President Hollande. He is caught by the cameras looking down, apparently dejected and lamenting over what L’Express says is his “shattered presidency”.

Le Point brands Hollande as a “Grand Pa, not up to the task” and according to the weekly, he has added a political dimension to the economic crisis rocking the country. France, it says, is on the verge of becoming a subject of anguish to Europe, as the authority of the President has been weakened at the worst moment of the economic crisis.

The magazine also looks back at a terrible week for the President and doubts his ability to implement any reforms.

Le Canard Enchaîné doesn’t spare certain ex-budget ministers who are calling for a cabinet reshuffle, like Jean-Francois Copé. Le Canard recalls that the UMP party chief has forgotten that photographers caught him paddling in the swimming pool of arms merchant and notorious fiscal fraudster, Ziad Takieddine.

The Socialist-led coalition in power was “deceived by money”. That’s the position held by Le Nouvel Observateur. The left-leaning magazine says it is deeply intrigued by the “strange game being played by Hollande”, wondering what he knew about the affair.

Marianne is certain that François Hollande and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy were aware of Jerome Cahuzac’s secretive ways. It runs an exclusive interview of Michel Gonelle, the ex-UMP lawmaker behind the revelations that led to Cahuzac’s downfall.

Marianne also regrets that the long promised fiscal cleansing was never delivered. It blames politicians who enjoy close ties with white collar fare dodgers for the massive fraud. It found out that French banks have hidden up to 284 billion euros in offshore accounts, an amount representing 10 percent of their assets. 

Margaret Thatcher, the long time British Tory Prime Minister, who died this week, attracts passionate comments from several publications. Le Point eulogizes about the unbelievable destiny of this shopkeeper’s daughter who exasperated many and saved the British economy while in power.

“Unsinkable Maggie,” mourns L’Express. The conservative publication claims that the first woman in charge at 10 Downing Street opened in the 1980s the route to globalized liberalism and led an uncompromising policy that has made its mark. She never bagged down in front of the Unions, the Argentine junta, the Irish Republican Army and against the Europeans.

Le Figaro Magazine holds that her detractors forget in what condition she found her country when she came to power in 1979.

Marianne says the “Iron Lady" remains an inspiration to her country as she’s being celebrated by both Labour’s Tony Blair and his Conservative successor David Cameron.