Paris Letter:A sense of humour may not be a typically French characteristic, but mastery of language and an obsession with politics are. Through wit, stupidity or Freudian slip, politicians produced a rich crop of political bons mots over the past year, collected for the Press Club's annual "Humour and Politics" prize this month, writes, Lara Marlowe
No contemporary French politician has achieved the delicious irony of Gen Charles de Gaulle, who when criticised for staying in power so long quipped: "Rest assured. I shall not fail to die one day."
This year's winner, the right-wing politician Patrick Devedjian, joked that he was in favour of l'ouverture (the opening) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's policy of giving high-ranking government jobs to the left-wing opposition; "including towards Sarkozistes" added Devedjian, who was peeved at having been passed over for a minister's portfolio. The jury did not hold it against him that he also created a scandale by calling a centrist woman candidate who had lost her parliamentary seat in Lyon a salope (bitch).
Jérôme Peyrat, an adviser to Sarkozy, made light of infighting among UMP officials during the campaign, accurately predicting: "Despite all our efforts, we'll still end up winning." The present interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, was mocked for expressing her loyalty to former president Jacques Chirac by saying: "France is the Eiffel Tower and Jacques Chirac."
José Bové, the anti-globalisation candidate who risked imprisonment for destroying genetically modified corn, said: "If I'm incarcerated, it will solve the problem of a campaign headquarters."
"I may be a zero, but le ministre, c'est moi," said the previous justice minister, Pascal Clément, asserting his authority in a variation on Louis XIV's famous "l'état, c'est moi."
The UMP politician François Goulard observed that "with only one candidate [on the right], the choice is somewhat limited".
Arno Klarsfeld, a roller-blading lawyer friend of Sarkozy, lost his bid for the National Assembly after he was "parachuted" by the president into Paris's twelfth district. "I'm not an expert on the twelfth district," Klarsfeld admitted. "But I went through it when I ran in the Paris marathon."
The extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was asked by a journalist what would be his first visit to a foreign country if elected. "Montfermeil," Le Pen answered, referring to an immigrant suburb north of Paris.
Arnaud Montebourg, who was a spokesman for the failed presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, was suspended for saying that she "has only one defect: her companion". A few months later, Royal announced she had thrown that companion, the socialist leader François Hollande, out of the family home. So Montebourg was right after all ...
Hollande's explanation of his refusal to let the ageing socialist Jack Lang stand for the presidency won him a nomination for humour: "Jack Lang had all the qualities to try for the presidency of the republic. That's why I warmly encouraged him to withdraw."
It's hard to say whether Lang's run-in with the party this week should be classified as tragedy, comedy or farce. First the party's leadership announced it would expel any member who accepted an offer from Sarkozy to join a presidential commission. (Lang has been invited to join the commission on institutions.) Lang resigned from the socialist executive on Wednesday, and yesterday called for the "collective resignation" of the party's leadership. In an interview with Libération, he accused Hollande and other comrades of "petty officiousness" and a lack of humility. Instead of figuring out why they lost the elections "they're excommunicating people".
Lang's reaction to his expulsion? "I'm liberated. They did me a favour by enabling me to take a decision I ought to have taken a long time ago. Long live freedom! Long live life!"
A bed and breakfast in Co Donegal might seem far removed from the ructions in Paris, but Paul Chatenoud, the French owner of The Green Gate in Ardara, has attracted attention for expressing his political preferences.
"There is still a small, emerald green piece of land that is resisting the grip of Emperor Sarko I on Europe," the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchâiné reported. "Some people cannot understand what The Green Gate is about," Chatenoud warns on his website. He cites "golfers, pretentious doctors, Bush-Blair-Sarkozy supporters and Le Minc-manipulated readers" as unwanted, adding, "It is better for them and for me that they keep away." "Le Minc" - written in the same font as the masthead of Le Monde newspaper - is Chatenoud's way of taking sides in the battle between the paper's journalists and readers and Alain Minc, the chairman of the board of Le Monde, who might be called the éminence grise of the French republic.
Minc is a paid consultant to several French billionaires, as well as a close friend of President Sarkozy. France's most prestigious newspaper has a left-wing tradition, and its journalists were appalled that Minc openly supported Sarkozy during the campaign. He has refused to step down, despite losing a vote of no confidence.