Paris, 1 May
Between two rounds of a presidential election, the city seems untypically calm. But from my observatory, two floors above the campaign headquarters of Ségolène Royal, there is a clear view of the frantic efforts underway. I have been staying in this building, with my host, a celebrated surrealist sculptor, on occasional visits for over five years. Until now its chief claim to fame has been that it was here that French Military Intelligence brought the lovely Mata Hari to be questioned in 1917 before she was taken out to be shot on trumped-up charges of espionage. But Ségolène Royal — whose campaign has been founded on the idea of ‘femmes victimes’ — has not spotted the reference, and Mata Hari has not been mentioned once during her entire campaign.
This is quite appropriate in a way since, if I were forced to criticise the Parti Socialiste, I might murmur that it does not seem to have much sense of the past.
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