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Politics
Spitting images
François Hollande and Ségolène Royal
The satirical puppet show, Spitting Image, is a distant memory in the UK but its counterpart is very much alive and kicking in France, where Les Guignols, 272 marionettes of prominent men and women, ridicule their real-life counterparts on the Canal+ channel.
However its debonair 50-year-old creator, Bruno Gaccio, may have to make an image of himself. He has become the latest beau of Ségolène Royal, 55, the failed presidential candidate and now failed candidate to take over from her former partner, François Hollande, as leader of the Socialist party.
Amidst allegations of electoral fraud, Royal lost after a recount by the wafer-thin margin of 102 votes to Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille and 58-year-old daughter of the former EU President Jacques Delors. The two women are at opposite ends of the Socialist political spectrum, and after Aubry conspicuously failed to back Royal’s campaign for the presidency, what Le Monde describes as a “Siberian chill” exists between them.
Martine Aubry - Ségolène Royal
It remains to be seen whether Gaccio’s consoling charms will woo Royal away from politics into the media, which would have television stations scrambling to offer her a hugely lucrative contract, or whether despite her latest setback she will try again for the Socialist presidential nomination in 2012. In any event Nicolas Sarkozy is looking increasingly secure. His presidential approval rating has soared following his efforts to find a European solution for the world economic downturn.
From our December 2008 e-newsletter
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