In the News: the shock wave of the Griveaux affair

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Benjamin Griveaux announced the withdrawal of his candidacy for mayor of Paris on February 14, 2020. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

By: Norbert Navarro

Publicity

The " shock ", in fact, is the same word that the Sunday press chose for its Unes and its titles, after the lightning withdrawal of Benjamin Griveaux in Paris.

Withdrawal following the dissemination, on social networks, of a pornographic video of the now ex-macronist candidate in the next municipal election in the French capital.

Withdrawal? "Explosion in flight" rather, Le Parisien Dimanche formula .

Since then, it's been a real headache for Emmanuel Macron. Who to replace Griveaux in Paris? " Delicate " mission, even " impossible " mission entrusted by the president to the boss of La République en Marche Stanislas Guerini, and to his special adviser at the Elysée Palace, Philippe Grangeon, choir Le Journal du Dimanche and Le Parisien Dimanche.

The Parisian newspaper warns its readers that the presidential party "is looking for a candidate desperately".

Volunteers ? Le Journal du Dimanche puts forward "the Buzyn hypothesis", named after the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, who "must now meet with the Head of State on this subject", reports Le JDD. But as this weekly admits, she "hesitates".

In Le Parisien Dimanche, a "macronist" quipped: "A doctor for a palliative care campaign, not bad! "...

You said it yesterday, " the Griveaux affair " is a real earthquake for the macronie. Who says earthquake says possible aftershocks. Should we now expect new revelations? :

" Maybe ," says JDD Juan Branco, " I know of elements in this case that may come out, " says lawyer for Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski, the man who claims to have broadcast. the video-shocks that Benjamin Griveaux did not dispute. Juan Branco also claims that his client “ is not manipulated by anyone. And especially not by the Kremlin he assures him, he has checked it, "states again The Sunday Journal.

To make matters worse, this week, Norbert, even before the " Griveaux affair ", the Macronist deputies had been criticized in a football case… this time:

With this text of law adopted this week by the National Assembly, which aims to ban professional football matches in France every May 5, the day of the Furiani disaster.

To fully understand this story, it should be noted at once that this law was adopted at first reading by the National Assembly. It must therefore still be examined in the same terms by the Senate.

But hey ... it's done, the French deputies said they were in favor of no pro game being played on May 5, in memory of the victims of the collapse of a platform during a match played on the 5 May 1992 in Corsica, a disaster that claimed the lives of 18 people and injured 2,357 others.

The next day, on the spot, François Mitterrand, then President of the Republic, had made the commitment that no more professional match would be scheduled for May 5 in France. Since then, the presidential promise was less and less respected, and with it, the victims of Furiani.

A great lover of general semantics, and in the manner, all at the same time, of the painter Magritte and the philosopher Michel Foucault, the magazine L'Express affirms it: " This is not a law "! In other words, behind the strict reading of the text prohibiting the May 5 games, it is something else that you have to see, or glimpse.

And this weekly refers to a parliamentary incident that recently rocked French political life, when Macronist deputies recently opposed the introduction of a twelve-day leave for the parents of a deceased child. Having then been accused of " inhumanity ", as L'Express recalls, the elected macronists, with this story of Furiani, therefore took no risk. Hence the " this is not a law " of L'Express.

But precisely, was it necessary to go through the law?

Well, if we rely only on appearances, it would seem that " yes ". But beyond your question, this pusillanimity of the elected representatives of the majority, this manifest concern of public opinion, which says a lot about Macronian governance, does not fail - in fact of questions - to inspire others to this weekly, like this one: " Are we making good laws with good feelings?" "

We can of course guess the response from this newspaper, but I will deliver it to you anyway. Do we make good laws with good feelings? " No doubt no more than good literature ". In any case, reports this magazine, " the case is being watched closely in high places ". As L'Express points out, " all this has little to do with football, but whatever ."

In Senegal, Norbert, this controversy about a historic weapon returned by France, the sword of El Hadji Oumar Tall. According to a Senegalese who calls himself an archaeologist, this saber would have no value:

Let us make it clear right away, this controversy, for some time now, has been agitating the Senegalese press, and in France, it is now the magazine Society which is seizing it, to tell the story of what this newspaper calls " the sword of discord ”. Recall of facts.

On November 17, in Dakar, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe returned to President Macky Sall this relic which was previously preserved in France, and which is presented as a saber having belonged to a highly respected figure in Senegalese history, El Hadji Oumar Tall. Since then, the weapon has been on display at the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, where you can scramble to admire it.

" Alas, it was without taking into account the unexpected emergence of a theory whose echo is now cracking opinion, states Society. The prophet, the soldier, the caliph El Hadji Oumar Tall, would never have owned a saber in his entire life ”! Come on, well ...

And who is at the origin of this… “theory”?

His name is Abdoulaye Sokhna Diop. Society recalls that he was “ a time ” heritage director of the Ministry of Culture in Senegal. And according to him, " nobody today can (...) say that this saber belonged to El Hadji Oumar Tall ", he said to this magazine, pointing out in passing that this historic figure " only carried around with him a kettle, a rosary and a cane ”!

Abdoulaye Sokhna Diop also tells Society that there are " people who need this sword to give themselves importance ". Without quoting the people in question.

With her father's famous saber, the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, of Offenbach, has only one thing to do, put it in its sheath. El Hadji Oumar Tall's saber? A real opera-food in the country of Téranga.

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