KEY POINTS:
First came the divorce, the remarriage and the millionaires' yachts. Then there were the Rolexes, the jogging and "Carlamania". Now, not before time, the satirists have begun to hit the airwaves.
A newly energised legion of French comics have decided that the best way to solve a problem like Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency is to treat it as a joke. With pencils sharpened and throats cleared, they are paving the way for a return of popular political satire.
"Satire is definitely back. It pretty much stopped in the 1980s - politically-engaged comedians haven't been in vogue for 20 years," funnyman Stephane Guillon said. "But now, what with the [financial] crisis and Sarkozy ... we comedians haven't worked so hard in years."
Radio is at the vanguard of the comic revolution. Guillon, whose four-minute weekday slot of political dynamite is listened to by almost two million people on the public station France Inter, is the most successful of a growing band of radio hosts who have upped the ante to meet the challenges of the Sarkozy era.
From impersonators to audio sketch-writers, early-morning comedians such as Laurent Gerra, Nicolas Canteloup and Didier Porte are relishing the idiosyncrasies of the "bling bling" president's administration, attracting increasingly more listeners as they do so.
Figures released last month showed that their various slots had put on more than half a million new listeners in four months. Guillon, who admits having deliberately politicised his scripts over the past two years, said that, whatever else Sarkozy had done, he had at least returned satire to its rightful place at the forefront of the comic repertoire.
As in the United States under George W. Bush, Britain under Margaret Thatcher or Silvio Berlusconi's Italy, an aggressively right-wing agenda led by a divisive and easily parodied figure has led to a huge number of people wanting to find an outlet for their frustrations.
"It's always the same with these people who provoke controversy," said Guillon. "We have Sarkozy, whose politics are very right-wing and who is leading something of a power grab. Against him we have an opposition [whose members] are too busy playing dirty tricks on one another to make themselves heard. So obviously we're on fruitful ground."
For left-leaning French voters, there is little to laugh about. Not only are they facing job insecurity and decreased spending power as a result of the financial crisis, but they are also being steered through the storm by a man who, with his liberal reforms and soap-opera lifestyle, personifies everything they hate.
Satirists and caricaturists alike have been quick to exploit the comic potential in a president who, at a time of grave economic uncertainty, is seen as behaving flippantly and extravagantly with his supermodel-turned-pop star wife, Carla Bruni. Last month, as more than a million people took to the streets, that frustration boiled over into what unions said were the biggest demonstrations in 20 years.
"At the moment, not a week goes by without people protesting or going on strike," said Guillon. In a climate of tension and unease, say the comics, it is no wonder that laughter is booming; in the words of France's great satirical character Figaro: "I force myself to laugh for fear of crying about it all."
Taking on their lampooning duties with the utmost seriousness, Guillon, Porte, et al are merciless. Last week they stuck the knife into Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister and humanitarian icon, while Socialist leader Martine Aubry was the victim of a Guillon hatchet job and outgoing Justice Minister Rachida Dati was the subject of caustic impersonations.
But, though contemporary French politics is replete with easily ridiculed figures, there is one whom the new stars of radio love the most.
With his authoritarian populist leadership, expensive taste and turbulent love life, Sarkozy is a satirist's dream. From his controversial policies to his personal spiritual guru, he provides them with more material than they know what to do with.
Their criticisms are given added piquancy by the fact that one of the President's many character traits is a marked inability to take a joke. Last year he demanded the withdrawal from sale of a Sarkozy voodoo doll, claiming it was an attack on his personal image.
Commentators point out that though lampooning him is irresistible, the President's tetchiness makes life difficult for those satirists who choose to prick his pomposity.
"There is a lot to worry about... censorship has become very insidious," comedian Guy Bedos told Le Nouvel Observateur newspaper.
- OBSERVER
