French press review 6 September 2014

This is according to a new survey carried out by the Ifop pollsters for Le Figaro. According to the right-wing newspaper, Hollande’s disastrous standing is nourishing a heated debate within the Socialist party, with leftist rebels like the ex-Finance Minister Arnaud Montebourg already waiting in the wings for the perfect moment to renew calls for the holding of primaries to pick the party's flag-bearer for 2017.

Hollande loyalists aren't impressed says Le Figaro and it points out that to most of them it is far-fetched to discuss the topic three years befor the next Presidential elections.

The conservative publication delves into the implications of the survey for the main opposition UMP party. Its a deflagration which challenges the right and humiliates the left writes the paper. Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy emerges as the right’s best candidate with 25 percent closely followed by ex-premier and Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppé at 24.

But it is Juppé who the survey tips as the UMP's best horse to beat the Front National leader.

The poll comes in a week when President François Hollande's former partner published memoirs of her time at the Elysée, painting him as cold, callous, contemptuous and someone who despises the poor. The bombshell has become a bestseller just days after hitting the bookshelves, while a new opinion poll puts Hollande at his lowest figure in the such ratings, with TNS/Sofrès saying he is now down to 13 percent approval.

In this weekend's edition, Le Monde explores the ravages of Hollande's devastating opinion ratings and how he has dragged along his Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has crashed from the 55 percent popularity rating he enjoyed on his appointment in June to 30 percent in just three months.

People who thought they knew Hollande have been scratching their heads after reading Trieweiler's book. Even left-wing Libération isn't sure. "Who are you, François Hollande?" it bellows in its front page this Saturday. It goes on wondering in a special supplement whether he is a liar, a cynic and anti-poor, as his ex-girlfriend claims in her book.

n the wake of the Trieweiler attack, Libé speaks to long-time friends, aides and enemies of the French leader. He had a comfortable life, not one of luxury, says Hollande childhood pal and lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard. Martin Hirsch, the former president of Emmaüs France, describes Hollande as one of the rare politicians he knows who is not rude. Journalist Cécile Amar, who authored a book on Hollande, says it true that he may have been hardened and rendered a lonely man by power. While Trierweiler may have exacted her revenge, Libération says French publishers consider her work to be a flash in the pan, while Bertrand Py of Actes Sud publishers dismisses Merci pour ce moment, as Valérie Trierweiler’s book is titled, as trash doomed to vanish into oblivion.

And L’Equipe is all about Pogbamania, as it salutes the scintillating performance of French Juventus midfield dynamo Paul Pogba in the Blues 1-0l victory over Spain in their first post-World Cup friendly at the Stade de France on Thursday night. The sports daily says the dazzling skills of Pogba, aged just 21, set him on course to becoming the much-awaited superstar of French football.