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French weekly magazine review 16 October 2016

Has the Republican primaries become "Petits Meurtres entre amis“?

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 Republican Primaries:

L’Express says it expects the process to be a re-enactment of "Shallow Grave", the 1994 picture by British film maker Danny Boyle about three friends who discover their new flat mate dead, but loaded with cash.

According to the right-wing magazine, the  rivals are certain to trade blows on issues such as the ideological colour of citizens who can vote, the judicial millstone hanging around ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s neck, the fight against terrorism, national identity, and immigration.

Even so, Le Point stands by its claim that France’s next President will be elected on the 27th of November, the date the Republican primaries are scheduled and not  the vote proper, which is scheduled for 2017.

The weekly claims in an editorial that the system of primaries is the future of democracy even though few were able to predict how deeply it is transforming the face of political life in France.

According to the publication, while candidates running for the White House have emerged from the washing machine completely washed out, at times humiliated and in a state of shock like in the case of Republican candidate Donald Trump, in France it’s a Star Academy  and only for the crème of society.

But Le Point argues that seven weeks from the Republican Party primaries, the deal is not yet done despite Alain Juppé’s runaway lead in the polls.

The magazine believes ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy who it describes as a French Donald Trump has the capacity to upset Juppé, since he is in control of the party’s machinery.

Bygmalion

The Left-leaning  l’Obs agrees. It wonders if he is not already off the hook of the Bygmalion affair which experts see as his political waterloo.

According to l’Obs, the two judges handling the Sarkozy campaign accounts reached seperate conclusions after their investigations of the ex-President’s role in the scandal.

The publication reports that one prosecutor considers the presence of Sarkozy's authentified signature at the  as saying that one persecutor says that the presence of Sarkozy’s signature on the bottom of the campaign accounts budget amounting to 22.5 million euros as sufficient grounds to indict him.

This, while his colleague won't decide yet because the personalities questioned in the case have not formally named Sarkozy as having authorized the remittance of the forged invoices.

Renovated Populism

For Marianne, the stakes are so high. The publication holds that it is the disease of the crazy right that knows no limits,  adding that in the wake of the loss of steam by “Sarkozyst” ideology, a new sensibility is gaining ground in some right-wing circles and shaping up in a form of renovated populism lurking on the fringes of the National Front.

Ali Bongo and "exacting democracy".

This week's Le Canard Enchaîné examines the situation in Gabon where it claims that security forces have continued  arbitrary arrest and abuses against opponents of President Ali Bongo after the post-election violence which resulted in the death of up to 100.

The paper reports that the author of a damning report on the crackdown in Gabon Sylvie Nkoghe Mbot Hypocrate NGO was arrested on October 6 adding that her family is still without any knowledge of her whereabouts.

Ironically, it says, despite the rather grotesque score by which President Ali Bongo claimed re-election, he hasn't lost his sense of humour.

According to the satirical weekly, he has actually hired three French lawyers to file a case of crimes against humanity against his challenger Jean Ping.

That's absurd says le Canard for a man who has controlled Gabon's repressive machinery with an iron fist for seven full years.

 

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