Macron Spent $30,000 On Makeup In Three Months

One year ago, when he was still president, Francois Hollande scandalized the establishment when it emerged that amid record unemployment, painful labor reforms, a sliding economy and the most serious social unrest in decades, the French president"s personal hairdressed was getting paid a gross salary by the state of ~$11,000 per month (more than a European parliament member). As the media reported at the time, "the hairdresser, who the leaked contract names only as Oliver B, is set to earn half a million pounds over the course of Hollande’s current premiership, in exchange for being available at every waking moment and signing a contract promising not to speak about his position."

The fact that this was probably not the best way to spend French taxpayers" money was confirmed this past summer, when Hollande"s approval rating was so low, the socialist president did not even run for re-election: a first in French history. Sadly, this was lost on Hollande"s former Minister of Economy - and current president - Emmanuel Macron who failed to learn from the mistakes of his former boss.

According to French magazine Le Point, French President Emmanuel Macron spent €26,000 - over $30,000 - on makeup in his first three months as leader of the country.

As Politico adds, "Macron’s personal makeup artist put in two claims for payment, one for €10,000 and another for €16,000, for doing his makeup during his travels and ahead of press conferences."

When asked about this abuse of taxpayer funds, The Elysee Palace said in response: “We called in a contractor as a matter of urgency.” Still, aides said that spending on makeup would be “significantly reduced” in future, Le Point reported.

It gets better: according to the report, the amount spent was less than under Macron’s predecessors. Francois Hollande, for example, was said to spend €30,000 per quarter on makeup, including the salary of a makeup artist.  Which means that in addition to his hairdresser who ran just under €10,000, the former French president spent over quarter million dollars in taxpayer funds every year to look good. One almost wonders why he left the French political scene with an approval rating in the single digits. As for Hollande"s arguably even more vain predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy spent slightly less on his makeup then Macron: €8,000 a month.

The news comes as Macron’s popularity is plunging according to a new Harris Poll. Only 37% of voters approve of the job Macron is doing, down from a high of 57% after his election in May. Today"s incident will not help his popularity.

Macron"s popularity collapse means that his fall from grace was even faster than that of Trump, although oddly enough, one will not read much, if anything, about that particular collapse in the objective and unbiased western press. It could be a problem for France, however, during the next election when that one third of eligible voters who did not vote for either Macron or le Pen, finally decide to vote against the establishment cadidate.

French Stocks Surge Off Technical Support After Overnight Poll

Nothing says existential fear for the EU like buying the f**king French dip on the heels of an overnight poll that simply confirmed expectations that the worst case scenario "Le Pen - Melenchon" second round was still a significant outlier. French stocks soared 1.7% - the most in 6 weeks - bouncing off the 50-day moving average.

We suspect given the massive hedge positions being laid out that this kind of volatility will be the new normal for the next week or so... 

Notice CAC bounced perfectly off the 50DMA

It was a broad-based rally, with banking stocks among top gainers: BNP Paribas +4.2%, Societe Generale +3.8%, Credit Agricole +3%.

CAC 40 is “taking centre stage and moving higher on the belief that Emmanuel Macron will make it to the final vote this weekend,” Michael Hewson, a market analyst at CMC Markets, wrote in a note.

Following are first-round voting intention estimates in Harris Interactive-France Televisions poll for the French presidential election. Changes from Apr. 13 are in brackets.

• Emmanuel Macron 25% (+1 point)


• Marine Le Pen 22% (unchanged)


• Francois Fillon 19% (-1 point)

And overall, Le Pen"s odds of final victory have fallen notably (below Fillon) according to Oddschecker.

Still, we all know what polls are worth.

Meanwhile, Europeans really don"t care...  

The European Commission’s consumer-confidence index for the euro area jumped the most in five months in April. The advance put the index at its highest since March 2015, matching the strongest reading since before the financial crisis. The latest figures were far better than economists had anticipated and mark another step in the region’s economic recovery for European Central Bank policy makers to consider at their meeting next week.

Fillongate Four Ways (Penelopegate, Loangate, Suitgate, Nosegate): Right Message, Wrong Time

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

French presidential candidate Francois Fillon is largely correct about things that need to be done to heal France. However, his message is lost in Penelopegate, Loangate, Suitgate, and Nosegate.

Please consider François Fillon’s Taste in Bespoke Suits Draws Criticism.

The embattled French presidential hopeful on Monday promised to deliver a “shock treatment” of austerity and deregulation if elected, sticking to a free-market economic platform that has evoked comparisons with Margaret Thatcher.

But Mr. Fillon’s expensive taste in suits has become the latest problem for his presidential campaign, which has been sent off-course by allegations that have cast doubt over his ethics.

Drawing attention to potential conflicts of interest, the Journal du Dimanche newspaper revealed on Sunday that an unnamed friend of the candidate had written a €13,000 cheque last month “at Mr. Fillon’s request” to buy him two bespoke suits from a boutique in Paris’s expensive Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood.

On Wednesday he is expected to be placed under formal investigation — one step short of being charged — over suspicion of misusing more than €880,000 in state funds to employ his wife Penelope and children in fake jobs as aides.

On Monday he detailed economic measures that focused on curbing the state’s role to try and jolt the eurozone’s second-largest economy into quicker growth.

Largely sticking to the program he had outlined during his primary campaign, Mr. Fillon promised to cut half a million civil service jobs, save €100bn in annual public spending over five years, eliminate the 35-hour limit on the working week and grant companies €40bn in tax breaks.

“The French have had enough of constantly being screwed around by the state,” Mr. Fillon told Europe 1 radio, using the kind of frank language that helped him to win November’s primary.

But the former prime minister, with four decades in politics, is struggling to divert attention from allegations of conflicts of interest. As well as the probe into his family’s jobs, questions have emerged over the financial help provided to Mr. Fillon by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, a billionaire entrepreneur who lent him €50,000 and employed Ms. Fillon as a literary adviser.

The latest revelations followed public outrage at the publication by the Republican party of a caricature of Emmanuel Macron, the new presidential favorite, with a hooked nose and a top hat that mirrored 1930s anti-Semitic propaganda. On Sunday Mr. Fillon apologized for the drawing and promised action against those involved.

Austerity Message Cannot Be Heard

1. When you preach austerity, do you want to be seen in €13,000 suits?


2. When you preach austerity, do you want to be under fraud investigation for paying your wife and kids €880,000 out of public money, for doing nothing?


3. When you preach austerity, do you want to be under investigation for taking illegal loans?


4. When doing points 1-3 above, how does it come across when you want to fire 500,000 civil service workers?

Adding fat to the fire, Fillon’s party posted an extremely unwise  anti-Semitic picture of his opponent.

Right Message, Wrong Time, Exceptionally Poor Delivery

Fillon is of course correct about reducing the size of government and the burden on French businesses.

But his program would be a tough sell in socialistic France, even in the best of circumstances.

That is why I said Marine le Pen would have beaten Fillon.

Can le Pen beat Emmanuel Macron? I think she can, that is not to say she will.

Here Are The Top 15 'Obamagate' Wiretap Victims

Via Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit blog,

The Main Stream Media and other enemies of the current President are challenging the proposition that President Obama wire tapped President Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. President Trump started this discussion with his tweets over the weekend, but it should be clear that it is not unfounded that former President Obama would wire tap President Trump during the election process. 

This is because he has done this before.  Here is a list of individuals who were wire tapped by the Obama Administration.

WikiLeaks released the following list on February 23rd (see link here) of Obama Administration wire taps:

The US National Security Agency bugged a private climate change strategy meeting; between 1. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and 2. German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin;

Obama bugged 3. Chief of Staff of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for long term interception targetting his Swiss phone;

Obama singled out the 4. Director of the Rules Division of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Johann Human, and targetted his Swiss phone for long term interception;

Obama stole sensitive 5. Italian diplomatic cables detailing how Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to help patch up his relationship with US President Barack Obama, who was refusing to talk to Netanyahu;

Obama intercepted 6. top EU and 7. Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret strategy and red lines to stop the US “extort[ing]” them at the WTO Doha arounds (the talks subsequently collapsed);

Obama explicitly targeted 8. five other top EU economic officials for long term interception, including their French, Austrian and Belgium phone numbers;

Obama explicitly targetted the phones of 9. Italy’s ambassador to NATO and 10. other top Italian officials for long term interception; and

Obama intercepted details of a critical private meeting between then 11. French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi, where the latter was told the Italian banking system was ready to “pop like a cork”.

In addition to the above list we also know now that Obama wire tapped various individuals in the US media that were reporting information not flattering to the Obama Administration.  It is widely known that Obama’s Justice Department targeted journalists with wiretaps in 2013:

In 2013 the liberal Washington Post expressed outrage after the revelation that 12. the Justice Department had investigated the newsgathering activities of a Fox News reporter as a potential crime in a probe of classified leaks.  The reporter, Fox News’ James Rosen and his family, were part of an investigation into government officials anonymously leaking information to journalists. Rosen was not charged but his movements and actions were tracked.

Also in 2013, 13. members of the Associated Press were also a target of the surveillance.  The ultra liberal New Yorker even noted that “In moderate and liberal circles, at least, the phone-records scandal, partly because it involves the dear old A.P. and partly because it raises anew the specter of Big Brother, may well present the most serious threat to Obama’s reputation.”

14. Reporter Sharyl Attkisson said in 2014 that her personal computer and CBS laptop were hacked after she began filing stories about Benghazi that were unflattering to the Obama administration.  A source who checked her laptop said the hacker used spyware “proprietary to a government agency,” according to an article in the New York Post.

Update – 15. WikiLeaks tweeted overnight that the Obama Administration spied on their journalists as well:

Did Obama spy on @realDonaldTrump"s campaign? Here is proof the Obama administration spied on our journalists https://t.co/R1wSTtahJL pic.twitter.com/wo9vEGzSZB

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 6, 2017

 

Obama is no stranger to wire tapping.  His administration tapped phones and computers of friends and foe alike.

 

Finally, we ask The New York Times, was this fake news?

So if @barackobama didn’t wiretap @realDonaldTrump who did? Please elaborate @nytimes, we would like to know more! pic.twitter.com/lvBrA1WIxQ

— Brian Bojan Dordevic (@briandordevic) March 6, 2017

Selling Of French Bonds Accelerates As Le Pen Extends Lead, Macron Tumbles In Latest Poll

Another day, another headache for owners of French bonds. In the latest French presidential poll, conducted by Elabe for TV broadcaster BFMTV, Marine Le Pen extended her lead by another 2-3 points, while support for her primary centrist challenger Emmanuel Macron, tumbled by 5 points in the last week.

The poll, released today, showed that Le Pen"s lead rose by either 1.5 points to 27% or by 2 points to 28%, depending whether centrist candidate Francois Bayrou would take part in the election...

... or withdraw.

The most surprising result, however, is the plunge in Macron"s odds, who lost five points in the first round voting intentions compared to the same poll conducted two weeks ago. Macron, who is the former French economy minister and who is running on a pro-EU platform, fell to third place behind right-wing candidate Francois Fillon, whom he eclipsed earlier in the month after a major embezzlement scandal erupted in which Fillon was accused of using public funds to pay for his family"s wages. Fillon gained 3 points in both variations of the poll.

But more concerning for her opponents, was the notable gains Le Pen made in the second round, where while still trailing behind both Fillon and Macron, she has seen a 4 points gain in the past week, shrinking the difference between Macron in the runoff round to 59-41. Until several weeks ago, she was firmly in the 20% range.

Meanwhile, as we have observed virtually every single day in the past three weeks, the better Le Pen does the polls, the higher French yields rise, and the greater the spread to German bunds....

... over fears that a Le Pen victory would be the last nail in the coffin for the Eurozone. Le Pen"s FN party has warned it would take France out of the Eurozone, return to the French franc, and would redenominate billions in French debt, a step which leading economists and rating agencies last week declared would to "massive sovereign default" and global financial chaos.

Fillon Apologizes For Employing His Family, Vows To Keep Campaigning With Renewed Energy

With some speculating that French presidential candidate Francois Fillon, mired in a growing political scandal involving public payments made to his wife and children for a "fake job", would announce a resignation at a 4pm conference, moments ago the former frontrunner for the French presidency defended himself as Reuters suggested, and stated that he has "nothing to hide", that his wife’s salary was “perfectly justified” and that he has been the subject of unprecedented political attacks.

He also said that "everything about him is legal and transparent" and that he would disclose his assets, including his real estate, and bank accounts. While he did acknowledge the "morality" angle of his case, he called for overall reform of the parliamentary aide system. Curiously, he also added that his wife "never worked for any Russian entity."

“I understand the need for me to clarify things and I will do it because I have nothing to hide,” Fillon said at a press conference in Paris. “Yes I employed my spouse. She was in the job for 15 years.”
The practice was legal, though he acknowledged that it is no longer seen as acceptable and he apologized to voters.

He did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at his main opponent, Marine Le Pen, and said that the "real danger in France is the extreme right."

He then vowed to keep campaigning with renewed energy.

The Republican nominee’s recovery plan comes in the face of falling in support in the polls since the a Jan. 24 report saying that his wife had worked as his parliamentary assistant for many years while showing little to no presence in parliament. Prosecutors opened a preliminary probe into the matter and extended the investigation into his children who also worked in similar jobs.

Polls by Ifop and Elabe show Fillon has slipped into third place in the election behind National Front leader Marine Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron. Surveys also show that Macron would go on to defeat Le Pen in the May 7 run-off vote.

Le Pen currently has the support of 25 percent of voters, compared with 20.5 percent for Macron and 18.5 percent for Fillon, according to the latest Ifop rolling poll.

While the public"s immediate response to Fillon"s speech appears to be agreeable, with Fillon"s odds of becoming next president with online bookies rising from 6/1 to 4/1 after the speech...

Francois Fillon speech goes down well with political punters,who back him from 6/1 to 4/1 to be French President. 6/5 Macron; 5/2 Le Pen.

— William Hill (@sharpeangle) February 6, 2017

... but the market"s kneejerk reaction is less favorable, with French bonds extending losses, as the 10Y yield climbs 6bps to 1.14%.

Impeachment Process Starts On French President Hollande For Disclosing Classified Information To Journalists

Submitted by Michael Shedlock vioa MishTalk.com,

French president François Hollande whose approval rating is a scant 4% now faces impeachment for disclosing classified information to journalists.

Given national elections take place in 2017 and given socialists would be unlikely to convict him, one has to wonder “why bother?”, yet here we go: French Right Calls for François Hollande’s Impeachment.

 

Republican MP Pierre Lellouche on Monday started a process to activate Article 68 of the French constitution, allowing parliament to impeach the president. The move comes three days after Eric Ciotti, another Republican MP who is managing former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign for the rightwing presidential nomination, formally requested that prosecutors investigate a potential breach of security.

While the impeachment request would have to get over several obstacles and remains a long shot, the initiatives add to Mr Hollande’s woes following the publication of a 622-page book in which the president, among other things, criticised Socialist colleagues and hoped for his party’s “hara-kiri”.

The book, A President Should Not Say That, caused outcry within Mr Hollande’s camp, pushing his approval ratings down to a record low of 4 per cent and prompting calls on the left and right for him to rule out a second presidential bid.

In the book, Mr Hollande also admits that he ordered assassinations for security reasons and disclosed details of plans to destroy targets held by the regime of Bashar al-Assad after allegations that the Syrian leader bombed civilians with chemical weapons.

The impeachment of a president would be unprecedented in the history of the Fifth Republic. It would need backing from another 58 members of parliament before it could be assessed by the National Assembly’s law committee and possibly brought before all MPs.

But less than six months before presidential elections, the moves highlight Mr Hollande’s acute political weakness.

The president has been keeping his camp guessing over whether he intends to stand for a further term in office and has said he would give his decision in December.

It’s rather amazing how Obama, Bush, and now Hollande routinely order assassinations and undertake military actions for political purposes, without declarations of war, making themselves judge, jury, prosecutor, and hangman.

Paris Streets See Big Increase In Migrants After Calais "Jungle" Camp Closure

Just as we warned 5 months ago, the decision to bulldoze the migrant camp in Calais known as "The Jungle" has had consequences for the rest of France. Specifically, the so-called "scenes from the apocalypse" have got worse as Thomson Reuters reports, French authorities are seeing a "big" increase in the number of migrants sleeping rough in Paris.

As we pointed out just a few weeks ago, the Paris you know or remember from adverts or brochures no longer exists. While no part of Paris looks like the romantic Cliches in Hollywood movies, some districts now resemble post-apocalyptic scenes of a dystopian thriller. This footage, taken with a hidden camera by an anonymous Frenchman in the Avenue de Flandres, 19th Arrondissement, near the Stalingrad Metro Station in Paris as well as areas in close proximity, shows the devastating effects of uncontrolled illegal mass immigration of young African males into Europe.

But, since the demolition of the Calais "Jungle" camp in the last few days, the number of migrants sleeping rough on the streets of Paris has risen by at least a third since the start of the week when the "Jungle" shanty town in Calais was evacuated, officials said on Friday. As Reuters reports,

Along the bustling boulevards and a canal in a northeastern corner of Paris, hundreds of tents have been pitched by migrants - mostly Africans who say they are from Sudan - with cardboard on the ground to try and insulate them from the autumn chill.

While the presence of migrants there is not new, it has grown substantially this week, Colombe Brossel, Paris deputy mayor in charge of security issues, told Reuters.

"We have seen a big increase since the start of the week. Last night, our teams counted 40 to 50 new tents there in two days," Brossel said, adding there was now a total of 700 to 750.

This means there are some 2,000-2,500 sleeping in the area, up from around 1,500 a few days before, she said.

Of course, officials remain in denial - presumably believing this surge is just coincidence...

France"s asylum chief Pascal Brice said the arrivals in Paris did not mean there had been a wholesale movement from the Jungle to the capital.

"There might be some movements at the margins (towards Paris) but what is crucial is that those 6,000 people have been protected," he told Reuters.

Between the Stalingrad and Jaures metro stations in Paris, migrants who spent the night camped out on the median strip of a major road, with traffic passing on either side, had scattered on Friday morning, many carrying their tents while police patrolled the centre of the boulevard.

Migrants and officials said police checked ID papers and asylum requests and later let the migrants return to the central strip of the avenue where they put their tents back up.

"There"s a lot of new people here," said Mustafa, 21, from Darfur, as he waited on the side of the road.

Ali, also from Sudan, said: "I see more people than before. People came yesterday and before yesterday from Calais."

Finally, as we noted previously, Paris Mayor Hidalgo, who has threatened to file a lawsuit against the American media outlet Fox News for reporting about Muslim no-go zones in Paris, seems to have no qualms about turning parts of northern Paris into ghettos for illegal migrants.

"Paris will not avoid taking responsibility while the Mediterranean becomes a graveyard for refugees," she said. "I do not want to look at myself in the mirror in 10 or 15 years and say: "You were mayor of Paris and you are guilty of not helping people in danger.""

Hidalgo added that "Europe and France are not living up to their history when they fail to treat outsiders with dignity."

Hidalgo"s project has been welcomed by some, including pro-migration charity groups, and has infuriated others, such as French Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse. She said there already are enough refugee shelters in Paris and that Hidalgo"s announcement would only serve to draw more illegal migrants to the city.

In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Cosse said that "migrant camps are not the solution" because they amount to the establishment of migrant ghettos where integration becomes impossible. Cosse said that more than 1,000 additional illegal migrants had arrived at the Jardins d"Eole in the week since Hidalgo"s press conference, bringing the total number of migrants there to 2,300.

A political analysis by the center-right Le Figaro postulates that Hidalgo"s plan for a migrant camp is just the latest in a series of provocations in which she is attempting to establish her left-wing credentials as part of a strategy to win leadership of the Socialist Party. The report says she believes President Hollande will lose his bid for reelection in 2017, and that his defeat will pave the way for a leadership battle between Hidalgo and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. According to Le Figaro, Hidalgo is determined to become the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in 2022.

A report by the French public radio channel France Inter describes the rivalry between Hidalgo and Valls as "war unto death."

Hidalgo"s quest to become the first female president of France may be derailed by the head of the anti-immigration National Front party, Marine Le Pen, who is now one of the most popular politicians in France.

According to an opinion poll published by Le Monde on June 1, 28% of those surveyed said they would vote for Le Pen in 2017, compared to 21% for former president Nicolas Sarkozy and 14% for Hollande. The poll also shows that on a scale of 1 to 10, Hollande"s approval rating is at 2.1.

The National Front party has accused Hidalgo of putting the concerns of migrants ahead of those of French citizens. In a statement, the party said that the number of homeless people in Paris had increased by 84% between 2002 and 2012, but that Hidalgo has shown little interest in alleviating the problem:

"It is absolutely scandalous that Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo uses taxpayer money to house illegal migrants. Migrants should not be housed in hotels or in modular homes within migrant camps. They should be in detention camps waiting to be taken back to their country of origin.

"Anne Hidalgo"s project is characteristic of a political class that is more concerned with migrants than citizens, a political class that has forgotten that the main role of leaders is to care above all for their own people first."

Meanwhile, efforts by French police to tear down makeshift migrant camps have become like a game of whack-a-mole. More than 20 camps have been dismantled in Paris over the past 12 months, but each time they are rebuilt within weeks.