On the front page: the call from the Quai d'Orsay to the French: "leave Ukraine!"

»

Audio 05:17

A Ukrainian soldier training this Saturday, February 19, 2022 as tension is at its height between Russia and Ukraine.

© Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP

By: Norbert Navarro

4 mins

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In a context of "

 imminent war 

" in Ukraine, pending Emmanuel Macron's new phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin, at 1OHTU, the Quai d'Orsay renews this Sunday morning its call on the French to leave the Ukraine without delay.

We clearly recommend that our compatriots whose stay in Ukraine has no compelling reason leave the country 

", said the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the

Journal du Dimanche

,

Jean-Yves Le Drian pointing " 

around Ukraine an assembly of very significant offensive Russian forces which makes possible at any time a rapid and brutal intervention on Ukrainian territory 

”.

Touraine and Guigou vote Macron

Two more blows for Anne Hidalgo.

Two former socialist ministers support not the socialist candidate for the next presidential election in France, but Emmanuel Macron.

The useful and responsible vote is Emmanuel Macron

 ," said Marisol Touraine to

Parisian Sunday

.

According to François Hollande's former Minister of Health, the French Socialist Party "

 has not been able to use the last five years to bounce back and bring new ideas

 ", she told this newspaper.

Another former socialist minister to join – unsurprisingly – the still no candidate Emmanuel Macron, Elisabeth Guigou.

According to

Le Journal du Dimanche

, “ 

not only 

” does Lionel Jospin's former Keeper of the Seals support Emmanuel Macron, but in addition, “ 

she works with his campaign team.

»

"Barkhane", the lessons of a defeat

In Mali, the week was of course marked by the announcement of the withdrawal of the French military force “Barkhane”.

And the weekly press draws up the first assessments

.

As summarized by 

La Croix-L'Hebdo

, " 

Emmanuel Macron has drawn the consequences of the setback recorded by France in Mali (where) the interventionism of past decades has fueled frustration and hostility

 ".

In Mali, as elsewhere in Africa, "

 the democratic system is not necessarily perceived as the most efficient or the least corrupt 

," according

to La Croix-L'Hebdo

.

Even before the official announcement of Barkhane's withdrawal, the weekly 

Marianne 

took stock of this commitment, which resulted, for France, in " 

a frank political defeat

 ", considers this magazine, according to which, "

 all things considered, Bamako, but also in N'Djamena, Niamey or Ouagadougou, the departure of "Barkhane" has, for part of the population, the same value as that of the Americans from Saigon or Kabul

".

If the "Serval" operation ended in " 

a real success 

",

Marianne

 believes that, for lack of a political solution in Mali, "Barkhane" turned into a military operation "in the

 end quite ineffective

".

Of these two foreign military operations, the first "

 maintained the illusion of grandeur 

";

the result of the second "

 recalls that the France-Africa summits, even ripped off in a pseudo civil society way, belong to the past

 ", considers 

Marianne

.

A duck under the influence

A spy at

Le Canard Enchaîné

.

Revelations on the activities of the shade of Jean Clémentin, former director within the drafting of the irreverent palmipède of the French press, and which was in fact an agent of the secret services of Czechoslovakia.

Under the pseudonym of " 

Pipa

 ", Jean Clémentin, one of the " 

great pens 

" of the satirical weekly, was for a long time " 

paid by the Czechoslovak secret services 

", delivering " 

nearly 300 notes 

" to them, and publishing " 

on order 

” of “ 

false information

 ” in the columns of the satirical weekly, reveals

L’Obs

.

In a file of Une documented with "

 evidence 

" which he describes as "

 formal

 ", 

L'Obs

 reveals that, from 1957 to 1969, Jean Clémentin was "

 a paid spy for the Czechoslovakians, therefore from the Soviet camp 

".

Believing that this colleague " 

did honor

 " to his pseudonym - which means " 

tap

 " in Czech - 

L'Obs

 points out in passing that the "

 sums of money

 " received in return by Jean Clémentin enabled him in particular "

 to buy a house in Meudon 

", near Paris, as well as a car, a Citroën 2CV!

Among other false information published by Jean Clémentin in 

Le Canard Enchaîné

under the pen name of “Jean Manan”, an article on the kidnapping, on October 29, 1965 in Paris, of Mehdi Ben Barka, aiming to accredit the thesis according to which “ 

the American secret services (were) involved in the kidnapping

 ” of this Moroccan opponent, who has never reappeared since, reports 

L'Obs

.

Contacted by this weekly, Jean Clémentin, now 98 years old, did not wish to answer his questions.

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