2016 Prize for Lying in Politics: The Winners Are…
The Prize for Lying in Politics was created on January 19, 2015, at the initiative of political scientist Thomas Guénolé, author of the Little Guide to Lying in Politics (Fayard, 2017, 2nd ed.).
This award is given with humor to encourage the political class to lie less, to raise awareness among political journalism about the importance of fact-checking, and to motivate the general public to verify the truthfulness of what political figures say.
Among this year’s winners is Christian Estrosi who, being a good sport, accepted this symbolic prize with a smile on his face.
Moreover, the politician from Nice is a former motorcycle champion, which makes him naturally inclined to the vroom vroom. Let’s just say that with the truth, he sometimes takes the corners a little too fast and is forced into somewhat… strange trajectories.
Nothing too serious, there are worse things. Besides, experience tells us that the whole truth is not always good to tell… isn’t that so?
“A Certain Regard” Prize for particularly absurd or bizarre lies: Christian Estrosi.
For claiming he had security gates installed at Saint-Charles Station in Marseille in response to the November attacks: this, while those gates were put in place by SNCF to check tickets, unrelated to the attacks.
And for having accumulated false statements during his appearance on France Info on October 21:
→ claiming he had “never heard of nor met” the former Qatari ambassador, while he appears next to him in Nice in a video shot by municipal television
→ falsely stating that no tax measure was voted during Sarkozy’s presidency
→ falsely claiming that the CGT published posters calling for attacks on police during the movement against the Labor Law
→ falsely claiming that Nice Matin apologized for an article about the mayor’s office affair involving him
