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CULTURE

Why do millions of French people still watch ’embarrassing and old-fashioned’ Miss France contest?

Younger people will tell you that it's embarrassing and old-fashioned - but the Miss France contest still has a prime-time Saturday night TV slot and attracts millions of viewers every year.

Why do millions of French people still watch 'embarrassing and old-fashioned' Miss France contest?
Miss France airs on TV this Saturday. Photo: AFP

Representatives for different regions have already been chosen and on Saturday night the new Miss France will be elected – with the contest a prime-time TV event that draws in millions of viewers.

The TV show is expected to draw in around 7 million viewers and the Miss France final regularly makes it into the most-viewed TV lists.

But is is also regularly denounced by feminist and equality groups.

If you ask French people – particularly the younger ones – about it, they will likely tell you the contest is an embarrassing anachronism.

“Miss France does not give a positive image of women,” said Caroline, a Parisian student.

“It is futile, pointless and utterly out of time,” said Pauline, another Parisian student. 

While British resident in France James agreed, saying: “I think it’s rubbish and outdated.” 

Feminist group “Osez le féminisme” denounced it in 2016 as a competition based on “a brutal rivalry between women” and in 2022 lodged an unssuccesful legal challenge which argued that anti-discrimination laws forbid giving someone a job merely because they are pretty. 

French journalist and blogger, Raphaëlle Peltier, had also warned in an interview for Le Monde newspaper in 2014 that Miss France challenge could send the wrong message to young girls, who might believe that they have to be “pretty, thin, tall, etc. to be successful”. 

But former Miss France winners Vaimalama Chaves and Camille Cerf disagree and say that participating in the national beauty pageant was an expression of the “freedom of will” and that it was possible to be both Miss France and feminist. 

To some, there is nothing sexist in Miss France.

“They are pretty, but we believe there are way more urgent issues,” said Jeannine and Pierre, a retired couple. 

Arthur, a Parisian resident, also pointed out that a men’s content does exist. However, “Mister France” challenge is not broadcast on television anymore, because it failed to attract a significant audience

The organisers of the contest have tried to prove their commitment to feminism over the few last years. The 2019 judging panel included only women and the captain of France women’s national football team, Amandine Henry, was the jury chairman when Miss France 2020 was selected.

This year the jury will again be all-female. 

Despite the controversies, the annual contest remains popular in France. As a matter of fact, 7.3 million people watched the TV broadcast of the beauty pageant in 2022, not showing much of a dip from previous years.

The Miss France event was created in 1920 by journalist and writer Maurice de Waleffe and was at first known as La plus belle femme de France (The prettiest woman in France) before getting its current name in 1927.  

Miss France 2024 will be broadcast on Saturday, December 16th, 2023 at 9pm on TF1.

By Jean-Baptiste Andrieux

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ELECTIONS

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

The polling is not looking good for president Emmanuel Macron's party in the snap elections that he called just two weeks ago. So will he resign if it all goes wrong?

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

On Sunday, June 9th, the French president stunned Europe when he called snap parliamentary elections in France, in the wake of humiliating results for his centrist group in the European elections.

The French president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections – but this power is rarely used and in recent decades French parliaments have run on fixed terms. Very few people predicted Macron’s move.

But polling for the fresh elections (held over two rounds on June 30th and July 7th) is looking very bad for the president’s centrist Renaissance party – currently trailing third behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and the combined leftist group Nouveau Front Populaire.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest in the new episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

The election was a gamble for Macron – but if his gamble fails will he resign?

What does the law and the constitution say?

Legally, Macron does not need to resign. In France the presidential and the parliamentary elections are separate – Macron himself was re-elected in 2022 with a five-year mandate (until May 2027).

His party failing to gain a parliamentary majority does not change that – in fact the centrists failed to gain a overall majority in the 2022 parliamentary elections too (although they remained the largest party). Since then, the government has limped on, managing to pass some legislation by using constitutional powers.

The constitution also offers no compulsion or even a suggestion that the president should resign if he fails to form a government.

In fact the current constitution (France has had five) gives a significant amount of power to the president at the expense of parliament – the president has the power to dissolve parliament (as Macron has demonstrated), to set policy on areas including defence and diplomacy and to bypass parliament entirely and force through legislation (through the tool known as Article 49.3). 

In fact there are only three reasons in the constitution that a president would finish their term of office early; resigning, dying in office or being the subject of impeachment proceedings.

Since 1958, only one president has resigned – Charles de Gaulle quit in 1969 after the failure of a referendum that he had backed. He died 18 months later, at the age of 79.  

OK, but is he likely to resign?

He says not. In an open letter to the French people published over the weekend, Macron wrote: “You can trust me to act until May 2027 as your president, protector at every moment of our republic, our values, respectful of pluralism and your choices, at your service and that of the nation.”

He insisted that the coming vote was “neither a presidential election, nor a vote of confidence in the president of the republic” but a response to “a single question: who should govern France?”

So it looks likely that Macron will stay put.

And he wouldn’t be the first French president to continue in office despite his party having failed to win a parliamentary majority – presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac both served part of their term in office in a ‘cohabitation‘ – the term for when the president is forced to appoint an opposition politician as prime minister.

But should he resign?

The choice to call the snap elections was Macron’s decision, it seems he took the decision after discussing it just a few close advisers and it surprised and/or infuriated even senior people in his own party.

If the poll leads to political chaos then, many will blame Macron personally and there will be many people calling for his resignation (although that’s hardly new – Macron démission has been a regular cry from political opponents over the last seven years as he enacted policies that they didn’t like).

Regardless of the morality of dealing with the fallout of your own errors, there is also the practicality – if current polling is to be believed, none of the parties are set to achieve an overall majority and the likely result with be an extremely protracted and messy stalemate with unstable governments, fragile coalitions and caretaker prime ministers. It might make sense to have some stability at the top, even if that figure is extremely personally unpopular.

He may leave the country immediately after the result of the second round, however. Washington is hosting a NATO summit on July 9th-11th and a French president would normally attend that as a representative of a key NATO member. 

You can follow all the latest election news HERE or sign up to receive by email our bi-weekly election breakdown

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