Salut!

Macron, Philippe and France's new PM Jean Castex: who is the fairest of them all?

Source: Presidencia de la República Mexicana / CC BY

Mirror, mirror on the wall ... did Emmanuel Macron, president of France, want rid of his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, at least in part because he was jealous of his far greater popularity?

Did Philippe want to stand down in any case? Which of them stands the better chance of warding off the menace of France's far right at the next presidential election in 2022? What can we make of Philippe's successor, Jean Castex? My confrere David Chazan quotes a French colleague today as describing 'an irritatingly ponderous slow delivery to answer his first PMQs'? I raise most of these questions in an opinion piece for The National (UAE), which kindly permits the reproduction of my work here ... 

Source: Perguillaume / CC BY-SA

Tall, lean and sporty, Edouard Philippe stood head and shoulders above the French President Emmanuel Macron, whose centrist government he led as prime minister.

The differing physical statures were matched in the opinion polls. Despite the Covid-19 crisis, itself following more than a year of restlessness on the streets during protests against austerity and pension reform, Mr Philippe retained broad popular support while the President struggled to rise above an approval rating of 30 per cent.

Las Chicas del Cable: the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of Madrid's Cable Girls

Image: Netflix

 

There are different ways of looking at Cable Girls or Las Chicas del Cable, a Spanish part-work we've just finished watching on Netflix.

First, that it's a gripping depiction of the years before and during the Spanish Civil War, starting at the end of the 1920s and stretching through the next decade.  

Second, that this is a serious and worthy subject treated as pantomime, with absurd dialogue and even more absurd scenes of impossible derring-do and outrageous family conflict.

Third? Third of many possibilities actually. That Madrid and the events of the era are graphically portrayed and the cast, from the beauty, warmth and fiery natures of the younger stars (male and female if we're honest) to the almost unmitigated evil of the elderly anti-heroine, quite compelling.  

The slow death of newspapers

Until last week, this had been the scene at la Maison de la Presse since my return to France. The main newspaper distributor went broke and for nearly two months, this - plus a blockade by affected employees - prevented most national French newspapers and magazines, and all international titles, reaching already struggling vendors in a large area of southern France. We are now seeing the French publications back on sale but no sign yet of the usual selection of foreign ones. As if the printed press did not have enough problems on its plate ...