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A country in flames, a caste that embraces itself... With Alexis Poulin
THE FRONT PAGE THAT OCCUPIES THE ENTIRE SPACE
Paris Match dedicates its coverage to the last summer of Emmanuel Macron at Fort de Brégançon. The president, wearing sunglasses and a life vest, muscles a sea scooter under the title Last summer at the controls. The report also shows him in foil, boxing, and jogging. The entourage claims that the photographer was granted no authorized access. On the same number, Raphaël Glucksmann and Léa Salamé kiss each other full-mouthed in swimsuits in Corsican waters. The magazine talks about stolen photos, spontaneous moments, the time of a kiss before the challenges of the fall. On X, the suspicion of staging prevails. A paparazzi too perfect to be honest, an operation intended to starise the boss of Place publique eight months before the 2027 deadline.
THE TERRITORY THAT GOES UP IN SMOKE
Meanwhile, France accumulates calcined hectares. More than ninety-three thousand hectares already burned in mid-August, more than seven times the usual average on that date. The fire of Saumos in Gironde ravaged forty-two thousand hectares, destroyed homes, forced evacuations of tens of thousands of people. In the Var, the Gros Bessillon has devoured several thousand hectares. In the Landes, there are new areas around Luglon. Four hundred seventy-four people arrested for starting fires since July, including one hundred eighty-three minors. Nine out of ten fires are man-made. Firefighters are holding the front line in five heat waves, a tenacious drought, temperatures that break records. Some of the French could not leave. Farmers are looking at their land, their animals, and their crops that have been compromised. Macron went to the Var on August 17 to see the firefighters and promise the same aid as in Gironde.
THE LITTLE ABOVE-GROUND CASTE
The Parisian press is rolling out the red carpet. The head of state shows off in water sports while some municipalities are still buried under ashes and firefighters have paid with their lives. The couple Glucksmann-Salamé offers the back-to-school kiss. Léa Salamé presents the 20 heures de France 2. Raphaël Glucksmann is openly preparing for 2027, wants to bring together the non-Mélenchonist left, and is giving himself a few more weeks to make this official. The confusion of genres is total. A public audiovisual journalist and a likely candidate offer themselves a romantic interlude on glossy paper. It is no longer information. It is a feuilleton of the self, a palace tale for a country that can no longer stand it.
THE POSTS THAT TELL THE TRUTH
@BVoltaire was headlining Macron on a jet-ski, Glucksmann in Salamé’s arms, the vanity ball. @LBleuBlancRouge was asking what the worst is between the president photoshopped on his contraption and the couple who’s half-naked. @AlexVilp saw in them two symbols of a small, disconnected, vain and self-absorbed political-media caste. @YaelMellul talked about a president who thinks he’s a retarded teenager at camp while the country is burning and there are dead people. @Jo_Fitou_ssi summarized Glucksmann-Salamé as the political incompetence that embraces corrupt public service. Even @faureolivier joked: during the heatwave, when France is burning, the president has fun in Brégançon. That’s the message.
WHAT THIS SEQUENCE SHOWS
