Blogeur (tm) .net / Paris, France

Defeated Socialists search for scapegoats

Let the finger-pointing begin. Ségolène Royal’s defeat on Sunday night left the French Socialist party in disarray and searching for someone to blame. There is hardly a shortage of scapegoats.

It is the party’s third consecutive presidential defeat. The Socialists now face the question of whether they can ever regain power without ditching their anti-capitalist rhetoric, as the mainstream left has done across almost all of Europe.

Ms Royal can argue that she did better than Lionel Jospin, who in 2002 led the Socialists to a humiliating third place behind Jacques Chirac and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. But France’s main opposition party still faces a wrenching crisis.

» ft.com

Police battle anti-Sarkozy protesters

CLASHES between police and protestors have been reported in central Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected French President overnight.

In the Place de la Bastille in Paris riot police fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon after hundreds of rioters – some wearing masks – began throwing bottles, stones and other missiles.

Earlier, a small crowd brandishing black and red anarchist flags set fire to an effigy of Mr Sarkozy before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it. Demonstrators chanted "police everywhere, justice nowhere".

» news.com.au

French parties call voting machines a 'catastrophe'

The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens put on a rare show of unity to call the machines, used for around 1.5 million of France's 44.5 voters, a "catastrophe." It is the first time the machines have been used for a presidential election in France. Amid big queues in general to vote, people using the electronic machines were forced to wait up to two hours to cast ballots. The left wing parties complained following problems at Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb east of Paris.

"In line with our forecasts, the electronic vote has been a catastrophe," the parties said in a statement. They said that many voters had walked away in disgust because of the wait.

New airline L'Avion offers Paris-NY with French frills

A new low-cost, high-frills French airline entered the cutthroat transatlantic market on Friday with an all-business class service aimed at cost-conscious "Paryorkers". The made-up catchword, derived from Paris and New York, is the slogan for a daily round-trip service between the two cities to be operated by start-up airline L'Avion from December 27. The airline began taking reservations on Friday and changed its brand name from Elysair after market research found, to the airline's surprise, that Americans as well as French people warmed to the simple French word for "aeroplane".

"We chose the name for its 'French touch'. We will have French cuisine and wine too," said former AOM-Air Liberte chief Marc Rochet, chief executive of L'Avion's operating company. For 1,600 euros ($2,118) roundtrip, travelers will be able to fly between Paris's second airport, Orly, and Newark, New Jersey, the second-largest intercontinental airport serving New York.

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: L’avion - French Airline - Paryorkers
» lavion.com

Chirac's France 24 starts broadcasting tomorrow.

PARIS: France goes head-to-head with CNN and the BBC from Wednesday with the launch of its state-funded 24/7 news channel, part of President Jacques Chirac's efforts to make his country's voice heard.

France 24 will broadcast two channels, one in French and the other mostly in English.

"Our mission is to cover worldwide news with French eyes," CEO Alain de Pouzilhac told Associated Press Television News. He said the channel will emphasize in-depth reporting and debate, culture and "l'art de vivre" — the art of living.

The channel launches its trilingual Web site — with video on demand and content in French, English and Arabic — at a gala in Paris' Tuileries Garden on Wednesday evening. Chirac is to attend.

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: France 24 
» IHT

Terrorist organization opens 'new phase in struggle against French state

A new phase must be opened up in the struggle against the French State in order for it to take an interest in the (Basque) conflict and its solution." Reported by the Spanish Basque nationalist daily Gara on 4 November, this threat comes in number 111 of Zutabe (The Column), the clandestine internal bulletin of the terrorist organization, ETA. This publication is used mainly to convey instructions to ordinary members and to set out the organization's positions.

Finally, in July, the nationalist Batasuna party, viewed as ETA's legal wing, addressed a letter to President Jacques Chirac, in which it said that "the French State must act responsibly and stop analysing the Basque problem as an internal Spanish problem." Batasuna added that Paris must "reject repressive approaches and seek a political solution to the conflict".

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: Terrorist - Basque Country - Paris
» lefigaro.fr

Paris street to gallery, the pochoir artist arrives

PARIS: It was an unlikely juxtaposition: A green, graffitied face of the Mona Lisa staring out from the eminently respectable cover of a Sotheby's auction catalogue.

Yet even stranger were the auction results of the Contemporary Art sale at Sotheby's London Olympia last month. As stalwarts of the contemporary art's scene - Damien Hirst, the Chapman brothers, Cindy Sherman - nestled around their estimates, it was the works of "Banksy," a shadowy British graffiti artist, that set the sale alight. The artist's "Mona Lisa," spray-painted with stencil on canvas, set the auction's top sale at £57,600, or $109,600, closely followed by six Warholesque silkscreen prints of Kate Moss, which sold for more than five times their estimate. Banksy has "underlined his credentials as a heavyweight in the art world," wrote Matthew Beard in The Independent. Graffiti blogs agreed that Banksy had been given the "green light" by the art establishment.

» LaPanse.com / IHT

Air France confirme la création d'une nouvelle compagnie touristique

Comme révélé ce matin par La Tribune, le groupe Air France KLM va créer une compagnie aérienne régulière à vocation touristique, en s'appuyant sur Transavia, la filiale de KLM spécialisée sur les activités touristiques. Basée à Orly, la nouvelle compagnie proposera des vols vers des destinations comme le Maroc, la Tunisie ou l'Espagne.

Air France-KLM a confirmé ce matin les informations publiées ce jour par La Tribune, à savoir son projet de création d'une nouvelle compagnie touristique moyen-courrier. Une initiative qui répond, selon le communiqué de la compagnie aérienne, à "la croissance du marché des loisirs" et à "la demande des professionnels du tourisme français". Cette nouvelle entité sera filiale à 60% d'Air France et à 40% de Transavia.com, la filiale de KLM dédiée au transport de passagers vers des destinations loisirs moyen-courriers. Elle permettra de mettre en place de nouveaux "vols réguliers vers des destinations loisirs actuellement non desservies par Air France".

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: Air France - Vocation Touristique - Tourisme Francais
» latribune.fr

Ségolène Royal wins French Socialist party’s presidential primary with majority of votes, boosting her bid to become the country’s first woman president next May.

Her victory, hailed last night by one of her supporters in Paris as the “birth of a new Socialist party”, helps her to dismiss criticisms that her candidacy was based more on style than substance and she lacked the experience to win the hearts of her party.

“I am conscious of having received this boost; to have been chosen in this way is something extraordinary,” said Ms Royal, speaking from her home at Melle, the small village in her rural constituency of Poitou-Charente in western France.

“France is going to write a new page of its history. The country has a desire for change. I want to incarnate that change, to give it credibility and legitimacy, and I believe that this legitimacy has been offered to me tonight,” she said.

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: French Socialist Party - Poitou-Charente - Western France
» Financial Times

Charges sociales allégées pour les très petites entreprises

Le prélèvement de 3.000 euros de charges sociales payé par les entreprises en création va être remplacé par un prélèvement assis sur le chiffre d'affaires effectivement réalisé. Une mesure qui devrait procurer un soulagement appréciable aux créateurs d'entreprise.

» La Tribune