French weekly magazines review 9 October 2016

Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy faces another tough year as bombshell book and Bygmalion explode in his face, while the French press rebukes the Pope for "bad sermon" on gender theory..

DR

"Sarkozy, narcissist?"

Most commentatorsthis week take a look at  ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy who is at the center a new bombshell by Patrick Buisson

He is also facing new investigations into the Bygmalion affair as prosecutors heard key witnesses in the illegal funding of his 2012 re-election campaign.

Le Point's editorial looks at Patrick Buisson's tell-all book on Sarkozy titled La Cause du Peuple or The People’s Cause. It says the once trusted political adviser to Sarkozy is now branded as a traitor for describing his former boss as a shallow narcissist, a retarded adolescent, and fake tough guy.

Le Point says Buisson doesn't deserve to be burnt alive for that. It describes "the People's Cause" as one of the most enriching political books in recent years.

More so, the right-wing magazine says Sarkozy deserves part of the blame. For the weekly, despite being a charismatic leader driven by promethean energy, he allegedly suffers from a strange syndrome which drives him to hurl insults at at everybody , some of which Patrick Besson recorded and published in his book.

Bygmaliongate?

Left-leaning l'Obs says the leader of Republican Party needs to stop running away from his responsibilities. This, after a string of witnesses were called up to testify in the Bygmalion affair concerning the illegal funding of his 2012 re-election campaign.

The magazine reports that their submissions backed by documents all point to the fact Sarkozy was aware of the printing of fake invoices to get around strict spending limits.

According to the New Observer, while the testimonies were simple, implacable and made in front of cameras, the ex-president continues to maintain his "posture of denial, lying like a child caught with his fingers in the jar."

French Presidential Primaries

The French are on the verge of transforming the 2017 presidential elections into a 4-round vote. That’s the view upheld by Marianne. The left-leaning magazine says the 2-round primaries held by the two political blocks will not simplify and democratize the selection mechanism, but bring more confusion.

According to Marianne, the process now resembles a night hunting expedition involving grey cats chasing different rats.

The weekly also points to a paradox. Left leaning voters planning to vote in the  Republican Party primaries are likely to be ones to determine who emerges victorious from the race. The weekly says the vast majority are plotting the former President's defeat while banking on Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppé as the lesser of two evils.

The paradox, it says is that the primaries are turning citizens into tacticians, little geniuses in political speculation. The weekly says the six irreconcilable factions of the two political blocs will lead to an accelerated balkanization of the political landscape says Marianne. The publication warns France to be careful "not to find itself in the shoes of countries like Spain which has been without a government for nine months.

 Pope in French Gender Theory Mess

Marianne also criticizes Pope Francis for his "unprepared" sermon about "France subjecting the immature minds of children to a sly indoctrination and brainwashing about gender theory.

Speaking to reporters on his flight from Georgia back to Rome Francis complained that children are being taught how to change their sex just as people swaphats. The weekly argues that it would have been normal, had the author  been one of the religious fanatics obsessed by the demonization of the Western values.

Le Canard Enchaîné says the "very liberal Pope" was misled by a French man probably affiliated to the "Manif pour Tous" Anti-gay marriage movement who told him about an exchange he had with his 10 year-old-son.

The satirical weekly reports that when asked what he would like to do when he grows up, the boy responded that he wanted to become a girl.

Le Canard regrets that Francis swallowed the story without blinking. According to the satirical publication, even if the Pope wears a cassock, he still needs to crosscheck his expertise before giving an opinion about how dresses should be worn.

Faces of Aleppo

And L’Obs publishes the works of a young Syrian refugee who spent the last three years taking photographs of his besieged home town of Aleppo. According to the weekly, Karam al Masri’s photos bring new terrifying insight to the sufferings of the town’s inhabitants as the city is subjected to intense bombardment by Russian-backed Syrian government forces