Day: 6 December 2017

The death of Johnny Hallyday – announced on Wednesday, December 6 – has caused a huge wave of grief across the French-speaking world. The singer-songwriter had a career that spanned six decades.

Hallyday, 74, had a long history of lung problems, and after a recent bout of lung cancer succumbed to the illness at his home just outside Paris late on Tuesday, with his family by his side.

“France’s Elvis” performed on many occasions in Monaco, always attracting a large following of admirers. In an interview with French-language Monaco-Matin on Wednesday, Prince Albert, who had met the singer several times in Paris and Monaco and over the years had forged ties of friendship, spoke of his own sadness.

“Johnny liked to come to the Principality, he had a lot of loyal admirers in Monaco and in the region. Johnny is a part of our daily lives, pleasant and festive moments in our lives,” the Prince told the daily.

French President Emmanuel Macron added his own voice to the tsunami of tributes. “He was a French hero,” the President said while on an official visit to Algeria.

Award-winning French singer Véronique Sanson echoed the thoughts of many when she said: ”I am deeply touched and moved by Johnny’s death. I thought he was indestructible. It is a part of all the French that goes with him.”

Bishops and priests also paid tribute on Wednesday. “Pray for Johnny! A thousand teen memories …” tweeted Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, Le Figaro reported.

American rocker Lenny Kravitz, tweeted about the legend, who loved US pop rock: “Farewell Dear @JohnnySjh. Your friendship, sweetness and support are imprinted in my heart. It is an honour to have known you and to have spent time with you and your beautiful family. Your soul is pure Rock and Roll. Repose en paix.

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The Government has issued guidance to future candidates for the elected National Council on the subject of financial agents. Monegasques go to the polls to elect a new National Council in February.

Pursuant to the provisions of Chapter III of the Law of July 2, 2012, as amended, each candidate must appoint a financial agent, which he must declare when filing his nomination paper, the Government said.

If the law envisages (Article 11) that this designation may take place after the beginning of the campaign, it is normal and highly preferable that the candidate appoint his financial representative from the start.

The amended Law of July 2 gives the candidates a great deal of freedom in choosing their financial representative.

Each candidate standing for a list will have to group together and justify all the expenses incurred by all the candidates on the list, as well as all the electoral income on the list.

This complex process will be all the easier to manage as the number of financial representatives will be smaller. In fact, it would be beneficial, in any case where they deem it possible, that candidates choose the same names, normally those of the representatives who will present the account of each list to the Campaign Audit Committee.

The Government adds that these are guidelines only, and not binding.

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News

Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov has been released by a French court on €40 million bail as an investigation continues into alleged massive tax fraud and money-laundering linked to the purchase of luxury villas on the Côte d’Azur. Citing a flight risk, prosecutors had asked for Kerimov to be detained as they continue their investigation.

Kerimov left the court surrounded by his own bodyguards, without making any comment. His arrest at Nice Airport last month provoked an angry response from President Vladimir Putin’s government. Kerimov represents the Caucasus Republic in the Russian Federation Council.

Kerimov is suspected of laundering money and evading millions of euros in taxes when he bought five villas on the Cap d’Antibes in another name. According to sources close to the investigation, a large portion of the payments were made in cash. A lower price was declared to the authorities in order to avoid taxes on the full amount.

Nice public prosecutor Jean-Michel Prêtre said the amount lost to the French treasury was between €500 and €750 million.

Four of the five villas were seized, the other was resold before the authorities could take it. Thirteen people have been charged during the investigation, which started in 2014.

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The organising committee of the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, which will take place again in January, have announced that a number of Chinese acts will figure prominently in the programme, representing the fact that China has a long history of circus performances.

Huang Yang, a slack wire walker, is a young prodigy who manages particularly difficult tricks in a discipline that is rather hard to master: she walks on her hands, swings, does a handstand on the rungs of a ladder balancing on the wire, which she manages to travel along, upside down, balancing on a unicycle. This is traditionally a man’s discipline and a woman has never achieved such feats before.

The Acrobatic Troupe of Shanghai, one of the largest circus organisations in China, will come to the Fontvieille big top with two big surprises: A Russian bar act, during which one of the acrobats manages three consecutive triple somersaults, as well as a series of double and triple pirouettes, and an acrobatic ballet of human pyramids with artistes at the top of them, balancing on one arm horizontally and doing the splits.

A total of 30 acts will be presented at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, which runs from January 18 to 28 under the presidency Princess Stephanie, along with plenty of surprises to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the modern circus.

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News

Claude Lelouch, the acclaimed French director who twice won an Oscar, will preside over the jury of the 15th edition of the Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival, which takes place from February 26 to March 3, 2018.

Conceived and directed by Ezio Greggio, the Monte-Carlo Film Festival was the first event dedicated to comedy. This year, it will take place entirely at the Grimaldi Forum where projections, masterclasses with the most beloved protagonists of international cinema, both Italian and French, and other happenings will culminate with the usual Gala evening and award ceremony on Saturday, March 3.

“It is an honour for us that Lelouch has accepted our invitation to preside over the Jury. It will be among other things a welcome return to Monaco at my Festival, having rewarded him for his career a few years ago,”Ezio Greggio said. “Lelouch is an icon of the history of contemporary cinema.”

Director, screenwriter and producer Claude Lelouch has a long and rich film biography that started in 1966 with “Un homme et une femme” (A man and a Woman) starring Anouk Aimee and Jean Louis Trintignant, which won numerous awards including the Palme d’Or at Cannes and two Oscars for Best Foreign Film and for Best Original Screenplay.

Among his most famous films are Parliamo delle mia donne (2014), Roman de gare (2007), and I Miserabili (1995), based on the famous novel by Victor Hugo, a film for which he won a Golden Globe.

The Monte-Carlo Film Festival aims to promote and disseminate the various genres of comedy through film previews both in competition and out of competition.

The festival is a unique showcase on the international scene for a genre loved by the public, but usually considered “minor” by critics, which thanks to the commitment of Ezio Greggio and the late Mario Monicelli, co-founder of the Festival, has in fact revalued comedy in other international festivals such as Cannes, Rome and Venice.

The event has always been held under the High Patronage of Prince Albert and of the Italian Embassy.

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