Pyramid Power is so, like, Next Week

Once compared to some western civilization figure that is no long forgotten in Europe, the once politically meaningful Ségolène Royal has, like so many others in her generation and cultural temperament, decided to cruise the astral plane of something alien enough to seem philosophically unchallenging. Favoring an image more like that of Cheech and Chong than that of a Social Democrat, she has in post-election orbital decay decided to give up on deifying the state in favor of deifying either herself or the good buzz she’s getting off of these smooth buds (known to the natives as fumer du shit ).

Désirs d'Avenir (Hope for the Future,) was always an over-reaching title. Now, at least, it’s look is as hopelessly naïve as its’ name.

Charles Bremner has more.

Followers still see her semi-mystical persona as the best hope for the self-destructing French opposition. Others see her as a fading diva. She did little to help herself this week with a revamped internet site.

Hoots of laughter greeted the launch on Tuesday of the new-look home of Désirs d'Avenir, her personal brand (screen grab above). Cheesy and old-fashioned, it looked like something invented by a cult. "Is Ségo in a relationship with Tom Cruise?" wondered one commentator. Another called it "digital suicide".

Then again, building a bridge to the 13th century was never a problem for people who like their peasants to nasty, short, and brutish lives that makes the sympathetic electoral profiles better, almost making them seem needed by some living person too.

What’s illuminating a frightening about the site she put up, is that it probably is very much hers. She seems to have either conceived of the theme or provided some college-age flunky quite a bit of input. At the very least we get to cringe as we peer into her mind.

More to the point, one of Charles Bremner’s commenting readers has more.

cannot believe it. The damage-control replacement homepage is even worse than the previous one.

France is lost. All this quality of life stuff is the light coming from a now extinct star. Can you believe that this woman graduated from one of the most exclusive universities in the country ?

Why yes. Yes I can.