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French weekly magazines review

Most magazines this week welcome what they see as President François Hollande’s apparent political transformation from dogmatic socialism to pragmatic reformism. And controversial comic Dieudonné gets plenty of coverage.

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Even the tongue-wagging commentators of the right are surprisingly pleased by the agenda for change he rolled out in his New Year address, his offer of a responsibility pact to the bosses’ union, Medef, in which government will cut labour costs, lower the tax burden and slash public spending in a trade-off for the creation of a million jobs by French entrepreneurs.

“He has finally woken up,” writes Le Point on its cover that carries a large picture of a confident-looking Hollande. In a graceful editorial, the right-wing weekly’s editor Franz-Olivier Giesbert admits that in times like these, when good news is rare, people can’t believe their ears.

The conservative L’Express clearly brands Hollande “François Blair”, referring to the former British Labor prime minister it says refused to adopt left-right labels and pegged his policy on efficiency.

Christophe Barbier, its managing editor, says that after all his zigzags Hollande has taken everyone by surprise by opting for pragmatism, which is not a result of improvisation but a real strategy.

Hollande, Barbier claims, didn’t mince his words in his New Year address and he prays that he will not hold back when implementing his promises.

Even the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné is impressed by the president’s voluntarism and pragmatic tone when speaking about excesses and abuses of the welfare system, effecting drastic cuts on public spending, lowering labour costs and taxes and greater flexibility for business. According to Le Canard, if this is not a change of direction it is certainly a major change of semantics.

Marianne acknowledges the enthusiasm of opinion leaders who have secretly dreamed of Hollande becoming a blend of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder the reformist German chancellor credited with the transformation of his country’s economy. The left-leaning weekly warns that the left falling into a trap by trying to overtake the conservative opposition UMP party on the right.

Le Nouvel Observateur is more preoccupied by the rendezvous it claims must make Hollande tremble – this year’s municipal elections and regional polls in 2015 - high risk polls and a time bomb in the heart of his presidency.

The left-leaning publication reviews a new book, Cannibal, by French journalists Sophie Coignard and Romain Gubert in which they portray Hollande as a free-market liberal in disguise. The authors denounce the excesses of capitalism gone crazy and the zealotry of converts from the French left.

Marianne and Le Nouvel Observateur lead with the row surrounding the French stand-up comic Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, who is battling to circumvent a ban imposed on a nationwide tour over its "anti-Semitic" slant.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls and the French government branded the comic a "pedlar of hate" for his diatribes against Jews and have launched a legal battle to shut him out of business.

Le Nouvel Observateur takes its readers on a guided tour of xenophobic France exploring the pockets of anti-Semitism and racism. According to the weekly, while some people defend Dieudonné’s right to entertain by using buffoonery and satire, his stigmatisation of journalist Patrick Cohen and his allusions to gas chambers cannot be assimilated with a joke. .

Marianne dives into “the world of a comic turned professional anti-Semite” in an attempt to understand the springs of his disturbing success and how he is capitalising on the frustrations of some youths to build his lucrative enterprise.

According to the weekly, Dieudonné’s trademark quenelle, a stiff-arm gesture described as a disguised Nazi salute, is fast becoming a generational mood "up yours" to the French establishment, according to supporters of the controversial comic. That is something that was unthinkable just 10 years ago, according to Marianne.

Le Canard Enchaîné says Dieudonné has been getting fat on his “anti-system” image, saying that tax officials have traced the transfer of 415,000 euros by his wife to Cameroon. This is while the comic skipped paying his taxes in France. Dieudonné declares 50, 000 euros in annual income, according to the satirical weekly, despite his assets being estimated at 1.7 million euros. Le Canard reports that a vast government operation is underway to bring him down through his wallet.

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