The former Minister of the Economy and the new tenant of Place Beauvau are in the running to win the 2024 “Press Club, humor and politics” prize.
The jury of the “Press Club, Humour et Politique” prize, rewarding the “hilariousest sentence of the year” revealed this Wednesday, September 25, the second selection of this 2024 edition. For once, the level is extremely high this year. In 2023, it was Édouard Philippe who won the prize, with a sentence in reference to his change in appearance due to autoimmune diseases. “If you think that you have to be a playboy in France to be elected, I still have a few counter-examples,” declared the party president Horizonsin the Quotidien program broadcast on TMC, March 27, 2023. As a reminder, the mayor of Le Havre suffers from alopecia and vitiligo, diseases that cause loss of hair and depigmentation of the skin.
Chaired by Bernard de la Villardière, the jury has therefore unveiled a new series of already cult phrases, in the running for the 2024 title. Among this selection, we find a gem pronounced by the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau: “Macronism, some have said it is hyper-centrism, I think it is first and foremost egocentrism”, declared the former head of the LR senators on RTL last June. Also in the running, the former Minister of the Economy with a record tenure at Bercy, Bruno Le Maire: “If today our level of debt is high, it is because I saved the French economy”, he indicated on BFMTV. For this 2024 edition, the theme of egocentrism seems to be relatively present in the minds of the jurors. Quotes from Jordan Bardella, Éric Dupond-Moretti and Ségolène Royal were also acclaimed by the jury. A third and final selection will take place in November, before knowing the name of the 2024 winner.
“You worked with Rachida Dati, very well, you know everything you shouldn’t do”
During the first selection, published last May, five first sentences were selected for this 2024 edition. “There are many European countries that envy us Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, signed Manon Aubry, last April, then head of the LFI list in the European elections. Edouard Balladur, former Prime Minister was not to be outdone on April 13, 2024, in the columns of Le Monde: “You worked with Rachida Dati, very well, you know everything that should not be done”, he had asserted. Precisely, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati is also in the running for the 2024 prize with this sentence intended for the comedian and columnist Philippe Caverivière, the latter having addressed the exclusion of the minister in his column: “I told Eric Ciotti that I was waiting for my OQTF from the LR”, she said on RTL, on January 17.
In Paris Match, on March 27, 2027, the former spokesperson for Lutte Ouvrière Arlette Laguiller was not lacking in humor either: “People find me old-fashioned and outdated for my ideas… and what about the Pope?” However, the latter had not asked for anything. Finally, and still in the running for the 2024 prize, Olivier Marleix, LR MP for Eure-et-Loir: “I will only talk about Rachida Dati in the presence of my lawyer,” he declared in Le Monde on April 13. One thing is certain, the Minister of Culture is very present in this selection, whether on her own initiative, or regularly cited by her competitors.