The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

the times | Monday June 29 2020 2GM 29

Wo r l d

President Macron was given a bloody
nose in mayoral elections last night as
environmentalist candidates swept to
victory in provincial French cities and
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist incumbent,
won easily in Paris.
On an evening that appeared to
signal the emergence of environmen-
talism as a big political force in France,
green candidates triumphed in a string
of cities including Lyons, Strasbourg
and Bordeaux. The Europe Ecology
Green party came close to winning Lille
but lost by 227 votes.
Mr Macron’s officials promised he
would announce strong environmental
measures when he meets the 150 mem-
bers of a citizens’ convention on the cli-
mate today. Mr Macron is on the back
foot, however, after his centrist La Ré-

Racehorses put out to grass by a late
Anglo-Spanish aristocrat are being
deprived of care and food while her
sons fight over her €150 million for-
tune, stablehands claim.
Former employees of the Marchion-
ess of Moratalla, who died in 2017, say
they have received no pay since March
and are having to limit hay and veteri-
nary bills for the 50 or so retired horses
at her four properties in France.
Jeanne Cazalet, a lawyer for six of the
stablehands, grooms, blacksmiths and
domestic staff who worked for the
London-born marchioness, is planning
to file a lawsuit before an employment
tribunal in Bayonne in southwest
France today demanding that funds be
made available for her clients and the
horses in their care.
Ms Cazalet said the estate’s accounts
had been blocked because of an inherit-
ance dispute between the marchion-
ess’s two sons, Forester Labrouche, 68,
and German de la Cruz, 41, whom she
adopted in Colombia in 1987.
Sud Ouest, the regional daily news-
paper, said that her fortune was esti-
mated at €150 million.
There has been bad feeling between
her two sons, which deepened when Mr
Labrouche filed a lawsuit claiming that
his mother had been mur-
dered. A post-mortem ex-
amination discounted this
theory and found she had
died of natural causes.
Ms Cazalet said the em-
ployees were caught in a
“catastrophic” situation
that she likened to “modern
slavery”.
“Loyal people who have
worked for this family — of-
ten for a long time — are
continuing to work without
pay. Yet the [two sons] have
enough money to pay big
legal fees for their inherit-
ance dispute. We have to find
a solution, otherwise all [the
employees] are going to die
of hunger.”
The staff themselves, who spoke to
Sud Ouest on condition of anonymity,
appeared concerned about the horses.
A groom said the marchioness, who
once owned one of Europe’s finest sta-
bles, with winners of the Cheltenham
Gold Cup and the King George VI
Chase at Kempton Park, was always

marchioness’s death, but that

about 50 animals were still in

her stables.

“We stayed on to look after

them [but] we have been

caught in their squabble when

all we are asking for is our

money.”

The telephone lines at the Do-

maine de Coumères, the marchioness’s

manor house in Bayonne, have been

cut, and Ms Cazalet said that the

same was likely to happen to the

electricity, because bills had not been

paid. She described the situation as

“flabbergasting”.

The marchioness’s mother was Olga

Leighton, a nurse from Fulham whose

first husband was the American

founder of what is now HSBC Finance

Corporation, and her second was a

Spanish descendant of a conquistador.

Ronald Asmar and Romain Jordan,

the lawyers for Mr De la Cruz, said:

“Our client deeply regrets the blocked

situation which results from the actions

that Forester Labrouche is continuing

to take following the death of their

mother. [Our client] has undertaken

numerous steps to end this dramatic

situation but you need unanimity to act

in an inheritance. He hopes to find an

agreement with his brother but until

now that has not been possible.”

Horses go hungry as aristocrat’s

sons fight over their inheritance

France
Adam Sage Paris

concerned for the welfare of her horses

when they retired. “She did not hesitate

to pay for operations for them even

when they were not earning her any

money, whereas other owners send

them directly to the knacker’s yard.”

Another employee said all the horses

that still raced had been sold since the

Ancient hero

is a TV hit in

Turkish ‘soft

power’ push

Turkey

Hannah Lucinda Smith Istanbul

When Ertugrul Gazi, father of the first

Ottoman sultan, led his troops into bat-

tle against the Byzantines 700 years

ago, he carved his name into legend.

Although little is known for certain

about his story, it has now become

familiar to millions of people around

the world thanks to Resurrection: Ertu-

grul, a TV series telling a fictionalised

version of his life in 13th-century

Anatolia.

The programme has become a sensa-

tion in places as far-flung as South

Africa, Azerbaijan and Venezuela, and a

key part of Turkey’s “soft power” influ-

ence in the Muslim world.

Since it started screening in Pakistan

in April it has become so popular that

two brass statues of the protagonist

have been erected in Lahore.

“There was a time in the 1970s and

1980s when Pakistan was making a lot

of TV shows and cinema, but after the

Islamisation wave in the 1980s there

were a lot of restrictions,” said Mah-

wash Ajaz, a Pakistani TV critic. “In the

past year Pakistanis have been watch-

ing a lot of Bollywood that is very anti-

Muslim, and is getting worse under [the

Indian prime minister and Hindu

nationalist Narendra] Modi. But here is

an unapologetic Muslim warrior king.

And it is fun to watch.”

Even historians know little about

Ertugrul, as the only accounts of his life

were written more than a century after

he died. However, it is believed that he

led a tribe from central Asia which

fought against the Byzantines, for

which he was rewarded with the city of

Sogut, west of Ankara and recognised

as the first Ottoman capital. In the se-

ries, which premiered on Turkish state

television in 2014, his life, battles and

love interests are depicted in fine detail.

Under President Erdogan, such

semi-factual historical dramas have be-

come a staple of Turkish television, pro-

duced in the style of Game of Thrones,

without the sex.

Critics claim that they are part of the

president’s push to rewrite Turkish

history; to glorify the Ottoman sultans

and downgrade the legacy of Kemal

Ataturk, who dismantled the Ottoman

empire and founded the secular Turk-

ish republic. Mehmet Bozdag, the writ-

er and director of Resurrection: Ertu-

grul, is a friend of Mr Erdogan, and is of-

ten pictured at his side.

Overseas, intentionally or not, the

productions have projected Turkey’s

influence at a moment when Mr Erdo-

gan is vying to become a figurehead for

the Sunni Muslim world. He enjoys a

close relationship with Imran Khan,

the Pakistani prime minister, who has

said he wants to replicate Turkey’s eco-

nomic model.

Turkey’s regional rivals are less

enthusiastic, however. Egypt has

banned the series via a fatwa issued in

February by the Dar Al-Iftaa, the gov-

ernment’s Islamic legal advisory body.

“They hide the fact that their main

drive in these colonial campaigns is

what Erdogan reaps from material and

political gains,” the fatwa read.

SCOOPDYGA;ICON SPORT

Macron’s party hit by a green wave in local polls

publique en Marche party performed

poorly in its first national electoral test

since he came to power in 2017.

Its woes were symbolised in Paris,

once its bastion, where Agnès Buzyn, a

former health minister who stepped

into the race when Benjamin Griveaux

withdrew over the publication

of a sex tape, won a humiliat-

ing 13 per cent of the vote.

Ms Hidalgo, 61, who

has placed the ecology

at the heart of her polit-

ical agenda, came top

with about 50 per cent of

the vote. Rachida Dati,

54, for the centre-right

Republicans, won

about 34 per cent.

Yannick Jadot, 52, a

prominent French

environmentalist

who is expected to be a candidate in the

2022 presidential election, said that the

campaign had underlined a deep-seat-

ed desire for “a new world”. “There is an

aspiration for more solidarity and

for us all to live together more happily,”

he said. “This is the victory of con-

crete ecology and of

ecology in action. An

extraordinary ambi-

tion emerged during

this campaign, an

ambition born of the

government’s inac-

tion.”

Stanislas Guerini, 38,

head of the La Répub-

lique en Marche, said

that he was disappointed at the result,

which he ascribed in part to a record-

low turnout because of concerns about

Covid-19. The first round of the elec-

tions was held in March as the infection

rate escalated, and is thought to have

accelerated the pandemic. The second

round was postponed.

There was some better news for Mr

Macron from Le Havre in Normandy

where Édouard Philippe, his prime

minister, won a resounding victory

with more than 58 per cent of the vote.

However, that win also underlined

the dilemma facing Mr Macron, who

had been tempted to dismiss Mr Phil-

ippe, 49, and appoint a new prime

minister to embark upon a new phase of

his presidency.

It is now clear that a dismissal would

be a political risk given Mr Philippe’s

popularity.

Adam Sage

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A brass statue

of Ertugrul

in Lahore

The Marchioness of Moratalla once had one of Europe’s finest racing

stables. Her sons German, left, and Forester, are battling over her legacy

President Macron,

with his wife, Brigitte,

cast their ballots