Présidentielle 2012: Eva Joly & “Le Petit Journal”

Joly’s latest campaign poster,
launched yesterday

For a very funny recap of the very latest in the French presidential campaign, check out the latest episode of Le Petit Journal! Embedded below and featuring Europe Écologie Les Verts candidate Eva Joly, the quick show parodies and pokes all sorts of fun at both Joly and her concurrents.

Little explanation: for those of you who haven’t pored over Hollande’s wikipedia articles, the reason his presence on stage with Parti Socialiste comrade Ségolene Royal is so newsworthy is because they used to be together, had four children, then split in 2007.

Want more? Flick through the archives of Le Petit Journal to find the Hollande episode and the one with the président of Jeunes avec Marine Le Pen, Julien Rochedy – à voir!

Présidentielle 2012: Radio Hollande, Jean-Luc Melanchon “En Marche” and Sarkozy fever in La Réunion

François Hollande supporters in Marseille (Source: Hollande’s Facebook)

As the French presidential election draws ever nearer, the candidates and their legions of fans are producing endless online campaign goodies!

Camp Hollande is producing an excellent podcast series, entitled simply “Radio Hollande”. One of the latest installments (embedded below) features interviews with everyday French men and women about the state of the nation.

Meanwhile, the team behind Front de Gauche candidate Jean-Luc Melanchon, who now appears poised to steal the left vote, coming in an impressively strong third in some of the latest polls, is broadcasting En Marche, an incredible documentary series about his campaign trail.

Below is the latest episode in which Melanchon, a stirring speaker, travels across the nation expressing his ecological ambitions for France.

Anyone following Sarkozy’s Facebook activity will have noticed his online content has had a very specific bent: the people. A massive number of his uploaded photos are portrait shots of Sarkozy fans, rather than Sarkozy himself (especially young, dynamic-looking types).

In this vein, Sarkozy’s people have just uploaded the video below to his La France Forte YouTube channel, in which citizens of La Réunion explain why they support the UMP candidate (and also just feverishly chant his name).

Finally, closer to home, SBS French is broadcasting a regular series entitled “Journal de Campagne Electorale en France”, which analyses all the latest presidential activity, left and right, and provides an excellent snapshot of this intriguing and fiery battle for power in France!

Podcast: Interview with Alexandra Perrin

In our fifth podcast, we meet the very lovely Alexandra, La Trobe French Department’s new lectrice and founder of the La Trobe French Club library!

She tells us about the culinary specialities of her part of France, la Lorraine, why she loathes the title “professeur”, the differences in the French and Australian university systems and why Sarkozy is worthy of her admiration.



Oh, and don’t forget to check out our stellar collection of podcasts from 2011, including such luminaries as Rockwiz’s Julia Zemiro and the Melbourne French Theatre’s Micheal Bula!

Présidentielle 2012: “Le changement, c’est maintenant!” François Hollande à Lyon

“Soyez les acteurs de l’espoir!” cried out a sweaty-faced François Hollande to a throng of thousands, having burst out of the Palais de Sports de Gerland and flooding into the streets of Lyon like nutella spilling out of a hot crêpe. And somewhere in that giant swell of socialist exhileration was a little bespectacled Australian smudge: me. But just getting there was no mean feat!

Hollande fans ascend on the Palais de Sports

Polémique: Marine Le Pen dénonce les hamburgers halal de Quick

“Dans huit de ses restaurants, la chaîne de fast-food teste des menus uniquement halal. De la viande halal chez Quick? Pour Marine Le Pen, ceux qui ne veulent pas manger halal n’auront même pas le choix. Je trouve cela inadmissible.” Go to Liberation.fr to read the full story! 

Above: where it all started, on Canal+. Below: Marine Le Pen defends her position, that Quick selling halal meat is a violation of “la laïcité”, on Europe 1.

To stay abreast of all the French presidential juiciness, check out Le Monde’s up-to-the-minute election coverage!

Cinéma Français: “La Conquête”

La Conquête est un film biographique français qui évoque l’ascension au pouvoir de Nicolas Sarkozy, de sa nomination au poste de ministre de l’Intérieur en 2002 à son élection à la tête de l’État français en 2007. Read reviews of the film from L’Express and Marianne.

Présidentielle 2012: Voeux 2012 des candidats

Les candidats à l’Elysée Eva Joly (Europe Écologie Les Verts), François Bayrou (Mouvement démocrate), Corinne Lepage (Cap21) et Dominique de Villepin (République Solidaire) ont envoyé dès vendredi 30 décembre leurs voeux 2012 aux Français. Via Francetv.fr.

Présidentielle 2012: Dominique de Villepin announces candidature

The charismatic Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister under Jacques Chriac, has just announced he will be running for president. The founder of the République solidaire party (RS) stated: “J’entends défendre une certaine idée de la France.” Read more at Lemonde.fr and on de Villepin’s blog.

Présidentielle 2012: Nicolas Dupont-Aignan candidat à l’Elysée “pour sortir de la crise”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of “Gaullist” party Debout la République, has announced his candidature for the 2012 French presidential election. Denouncing the summit at Brussels as a “une gigantesque escroquerie” (giant fraud), he promises to deliver France from the present crisis by “relocalising employment”. Read more at Francetv.fr!

Médias Français: France 24

France 24 est la chaîne française d’information internationale 24h/24. Sa mission est de couvrir l’actualité avec un regard français et de véhiculer partout dans le monde les valeurs et les perspectives françaises.

Best of all, not only are the videos rich and wonderfully in-depth, but it’s all free and en ligne! Watch the panel discussion below, “2011, annus horribilis pour Nicolas Sarkozy?”, to get a taste.

L’Europe en difficulté, l’automne qui succède au printemps arabe, la crise libyenne ... 2011 semble bien être l’annus horribilis pour Nicolas Sarkozy. Dans sept mois les Francais vont désigner un président, que restera-t-il du quinquennat de Nicolas Sarkozy?

Oh, and did you know you can retrouver Nicholas Sarkozy sur Facebook? The man is actually a Facebook powerhouse, 11,000 people liked his latest satus update!

Vidéo: Interview avec Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen, présidente du Front National et candidate à l’élection présidentielle, est l’invitée de Mardi politique. Elle est interrogée par Guillaume Naudin (RFI), Roselyne Febvre (France 24), Yvon Mezou (20 Minutes) et Saïd Mahrane (Le Point).