The sharp end of the campaign IT IS a rite of passage for any French politician seeking high office to linger at the annual Paris agricultural fair, petting heaving bulls and nibbling regional charcuterie. This bestows on besuited city types essential national virtues, linked to the land, earthy muscularity and la France profonde. Last week, though, saw a parade of male would-be candidates for next year’s presidential election pressing the flesh in a less traditional setting: amid the heat tongs, hair extensions and tubs of cream peroxide at the Paris hairdressing fair.
Hair, it seems, is a new political battleground. At the Mondial Coiffure et Beauté on September 11th-12th Bruno Le Maire, a centre-right would-be candidate on his way to a lesson in lissage brésilien (Brazilian hair-straightening), bumped into Emmanuel Macron, an aspirant from the left, fresh from a barber’s shave. Even Alain Juppé, another centre-right hopeful, turned up, though the balding former prime minister conceded wryly that his own needs were minimal. In July it emerged that the Elysée palace was…
