Erdogan’s influence is spreading across Europe

Two video clips did the rounds in the French media at the weekend. One went global, that of the heart-warming heroism of Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant who rescued a small boy dangling from a balcony in Paris; the other, being more feel-fear than feel-good, didn’t capture the world’s attention in quite the same way. This film was shot in the south of France, in a suburb of Avignon, and showed a group of men surrounding a newspaper kiosk. They were there to protest at a large poster advertising the latest edition of the current affairs magazine, Le Point, the front cover of which was adorned with a photograph of the Turkish president Recep Erdogan under the headline ‘The Dictator’.

Initially the vendor refused to remove the poster on the grounds of press freedom, but when the mob threatened to burn down the kiosk, he relented. Le Point insisted the next day that the poster be reinstated, and it was, with a police guard.