We Are Not To Sleep (On N'est Pas Couché)

Sunday, September 14, 2014

     After hearing some of the language that has been thrown around by some French political types this week, one wonders whether some of the problem in France is not due to the distemper of the governing classes.  This week was the week that Aquilino Morelle, a "political counselor" to President Hollande until he was forced out in the cabinet reshuffle, declared that he and Arnaud Montbourg were the victims of "ethnic cleansing comparable to that in Rwanda".  Who carried out the executions?  "The Hollande 'Cheka'", a reference to the Soviet state security organization.  

     In fact, as early as April of this year, Morelle was pushed to resign, when a conflict of interest involving a Danish pharmaceutical company came to light.  When the article, by Anna Cabana of "Le Point" appeared, Morelle denied having said what was attributed to him; however Cabana still had her notes, proving Morelle not just loose-lipped, but a liar.

     On another front, Thomas Thevenoud, the briefly-serving Minister of Commerce, was revealed to have not only paid taxes late three years in a row, but to have failed to pay the rent on his Paris apartment for the same length of time, as well as having never paid any of his parking tickets or even a physical therapist's fees for treatment of his daughters.  Notwithstanding his expulsion from the Socialist Party, Thevenoud refuses to resign, saying he was elected for a term and plans to see it through.  All this is must be very embarrassing for his wife, Sandra Elouarghi-Thevenoud, chief of staff to the President of the French Senate.  

     These issues and more were the subject of fast-flying banter on On N'est Pas Couché, the Saturday night political comedy program on France 2, hosted by Laurent Ruquier.  Ruquier --improbably, a former accountant, who found his calling in comedy-- is very quick, and well-informed.  The format of the show --three guests, one special guest, a musician or band and two regular side-kicks --a woman on the right, a man on the left-- lends itself to the ventilation of issues without sententiousness.  Which is not to exclude the occasional outrage: as when (on the last broadcast last season) Nicolas Bédos, the comedian --a strikingly handsome young man-- donned drag to impersonate departing commentator Natacha Polony of Le Figaro, who left having had her fill of Aymeric Caron, the vegetarian animal-rights activtist and author with whom she sparred weekly.  She was replaced by Léa Salamé, a television journalist of Franco-Lebanese descent.

     Last night the guests were Patrick Besson, the novelist and member of the Académie Française, Jean-Michel Ribes, the director, and Isabelle Mergault, the actress.  And Samaha and Frah of the experimental rock band Shaka Ponk.  The special guest --who gets the most airtime --was Bruno Le Maire, the former Agriculture Minister in François Fillon's government, and now a candidate for presidency of the UMP.

     Isabelle Mergault, who is springy, but no spring chicken, showed up wearing black tights, black Dr. Martens boots and a black mini-dress that plunged in both front and back, much to the interest of Jean-Michel Ribes, who addressed himself to her chest frequently.  Samaha and the rest of Shaka Ponk were shown receiving a medal from Aurelie Filipetti (see The Toothless Ones May Bite 9/11/14 for more on her).   For the ceremony Samaha wore a large black t-shirt bearing the message --emblazoned in white block letters-- WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK.  No one saw fit to comment.

     Patrick Besson --who said little for most of the broadcast-- had the opportunity to say, when Valerie Trierweiler's name came up and Ruquier asked if anyone had read Merci Pour Ce Moment-- that he had read it and it was "worth reading".  He vigorously defended Trierweiler's right to give her side of the story after having been pilloried so long in the press. --Which prompted Merigault to tell him that she'd liked him up to now.  

     At which point most of the guests talked about how François Hollande had not had a break from negative press comment since his election and that how badly the press had treated him  was unprecedented.  At which point Ruquier --who is an honest broker-- begged all to remember that Sarkozy had been similarly pilloried, starting with the negative story about the election-night victory party at Fouquet's and no let up from then on.  Ruquier also demonstrated the astuteness that breathes under the cheerful façade by taking to task the press, which has characterized Thevenoud's misdeeds as "tax evasion", when what Thevenoud is actually guilty of is fiscal fecklessness.  "It's our job to screw you", Jean-Michel Ribes said a journalist told him, gilding the lily.

      Bruno Le Maire was in camera view throughout all of this, waiting for his entrance.  A slender, tall man with a well-modeled head, very short white hair and large blue eyes, Le Maire's quest for the presidency of the UMP is probably a quixotic one, but he gave a very good account of himself.  

      Le Maire is both a graduate of the École Normale Superieure, France's most prestigious school of arts and letters; and, the École Nationale d'Administration, the training ground for France's elite in government.  He wrote a first-class thesis on the significance of statuary in Proust's À La Rechèrche du Temps Perdu, and has written three books.  The latest, A Nos Enfants, is a plea to young people to stay in France and lead reform of its institutions.  (Le Maire has four young children.)  Going on On N'est Se Pas Couché (this is his second appearance), was an opportunity for him to make himself better known, but in return for it, he had to take whatever came his way from the guests:

     -Isabelle Mergault reproached him for addressing her by her first name --until he gently asked "Would you prefer I call you Madame Mergault?" disarming her.

     --Léa Salamé told him she thought his previous book, about his time as Cabinet minister, was superior to his latest, and couldn't he have put a bit more of his "tripes" ("guts") into A Nos Enfants?

     --Aymeric Caron took Le Maire to task for stating that the threat was the Front Nationale, as if to discount the Socialist Party;

     --And Laurent Ruquier razzed Le Maire gently about his prospects, saying "Do you really think you are going to beat Nicolas Sarkozy?"

      As to the latter --whom I cannot imagine ever going on a free-wheeling program like On N'est Pas Couché-- Le Maire said his thinking is that those French inclined to ideas generated on the right would recognize that new solutions were needed, and that means new leaders.

     At which point Aymeric Caron (to Le Maire's satisfaction, no doubt), pointed out that a recent poll indicated that when asked, only 27% of those who said they voted for Sarkozy in the last election would vote for him again.  

     After all, Sarkozy's discourse --he once told a young man who refused to shake his hand at a public event, Casse-toi, pauvre con! ("Get lost, you idiot!); on another occasion he was said to have remarked that France's troublesome ghettos ought to be power-washed ("nettoyer les 4000 au Karcher) --may have opened the door to the extravagances of language that now dominate political discourse in France.

     Gentle, courtly, erudite Bruno Le Maire: does he have a place in France's future politics?