20 The Sunday Times February 13, 2022
WORLD NEWS
Clouds of tear gas hung over the Champs-
Élysées yesterday as members of a self-
styled Freedom Convoy that had con-
verged on Paris from around France,
defying a government ban, blocked one
of the city’s main thoroughfares.
Despite the presence on the streets of
7,200 police and gendarmes, reinforced
by armoured personnel carriers, protest-
ers against vaccine mandates, waving
flags from their car windows and chant-
ing liberté (freedom), slipped through
police road blocks set up around the péri-
pherique ring road and drove into the
capital.
Once in the Champs-Élysées itself,
some stopped their cars and refused to
get out, before eventually being towed
away. Others tried to block the ring road
itself. Thousands of other demonstrators
joined protest marches across the city.
They were among thousands of mem-
bers of a Convoi de la liberté of cars,
motorbikes and camper vans that
approached Paris from at least five direc-
tions in the early hours of the morning
and which plans to travel on to Brussels,
in an echo of the truckers’ protests that
have rocked Canada. By the afternoon
more than 330 people had been fined.
Police said at least 3,000 vehicles had
made it into the city.
President Macron — who is expected to
seek, and win, re-election in April — has
called for calm. “We have always safe-
guarded the right to protest,” he said in a
newspaper interview. “But we need har-
mony and we need a lot of collective
goodwill.”
The authorities, who banned the con-
voy from entering Paris, were not taking
any chances. It was the first time that
armoured vehicles had been deployed in
the city since 2018, in response to the
gilets jaunes (yellow vest) protests that
caused havoc for almost a year and cast a
shadow over Macron’s presidency.
Many of that movement’s supporters
back the Convoi de la liberté, whose vari-
ous social media sites have attracted
more than 300,000 supporters.
“This is the return of the gilets jaunes,”
said Bernard Vivier, an expert on French
popular movements.
Like the yellow vests before them, this
movement appears to have grown organ-
ically, without formal leaders. One of itsPeter Conradi Europe Editorvans. There were few trucks: unlike in
Canada, only a small number of French
lorry drivers own their vehicles and few
bosses were ready to let employees take
part in the disruption.
Some of the loudest cheers were for
Manuel Aramdel, 42, a farmer who had
driven his red Massey Ferguson tractor
from Aix-les-Bains, 50 miles east of
Lyons, at a maximum 25mph. “This is all
about our president, Emmanuel
Macron,” he told me as I hitched a brief
ride in his cab. “He said he really wanted
to piss off the unvaccinated. So we are
doing this to piss him off over all these
measures that take away our liberty.”
Music was playing and while some
went off in search of a hotel or bedded
down for the night in their car, camper
van or truck, others kept on drinking and
partying into the early hours.
The mood was more sober the next
morning when I returned to a car park
enveloped in drizzle. Aramdel had been
facing the prospect of a night in the back
of a truck in a borrowed sleeping bag.
How had it been?
“A girl let me share her bed,” he said. I
gave the married father-of-two a quizzical
look. “Don’t worry, nothing happened,”
he assured me.
The first stop that day at lunchtime
was at an almost identical out-of-town
shopping centre outside Dijon, 120miles
north. Among those pulling up there
were Luc, 63, a retired art teacher, and
Isabelle, 67, who described herself as a
femme libre (free woman). They had met
a few days earlier on social media anddecided to set off together for a few days
in Luc’s elderly camper van. “We are fed
up with all these arbitrary, tyrannical and
useless measures,” they said almost in
unison.
Like most members of the convoy that
I met, they described themselves as “apo-
litical”, their almost universal distaste for
Macron not matched by enthusiasm
either for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the far-
left candidate in April’s election, or for
Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour on the
far right. Or even for Valérie Pécresse on
the centre right.
For their part, opposition politicians
have been careful not to endorse the
movement, though Le Pen came close,
saying she understood their grievances,
calling them “another form of the gilets
jaunes”, while claiming that “Emmanuel
Macron does not propose anything and
gets out the armoured vehicles.”
Most of those in the convoy said they
refused to be injected with an “experi-
mental” vaccine. Maria, 39, a supply
nurse who cannot get any work because
she refuses to be jabbed, says it will not be
known for years whether it has bad long-
term side effects.
“It’s like when Marie Curie discovered
uranium,” she said. “They made pills and
compresses out of it and all the doctors
said it was the new big thing. It was only
ten or 20 years later she died of cancer.”
Our conversation was interrupted as
“Monde” began a speech to supporters,
during which he urged them to hide their
tricolours and banners as they neared
Paris. One of the audience said that if
police stopped him and found his flag he
would just say he was making for the
Stade de France, on the outskirts of Paris,
which was hosting the Six Nations match
between France and Ireland.
The government has addressed the
protesters’ primary grievance:as the first
vehicles were setting off, it announced
that the pass vaccinal was likely to be
phased out late next month or early in
April, just days before the first round of
the presidential election.
Yet it may not be enough to calm the
unrest. When the gilets jaunes protests
erupted in late 2018, Macron swiftly
reversed a planned rise in fuel taxes. By
then, however, the list of demands had
become much broader and the protests
continued deep into the next year.
@Peter_ConradiCondiment marketing was
not the only thing at stake
here. Davidson — a heavily
tattooed comic from New
York’s least glamorous
borough, whose personal
aesthetic appeal could most
kindly be described as
unconventional — had just
cemented his status as
Hollywood’s hottest
Casanova.
He already had a string of
famous exs, including the
pop star Ariana Grande,
Cindy Crawford’s model
daughter, Kaia Gerber, and
the British actresses Kate
Beckinsale and Phoebe
Dynevor, from Bridgerton.
Now, by confirming his
romance with Kim
Kardashian, 41, the reality TV
star, billionaire entrepreneur
and mother of four, Davidson
had thrust himself to the top
of the global A-list.
“As long as his relationship
with Kim continues to grow,
he is going to go on a global
tour with her, as her partner,
that will expose him to a
global audience that will fall
in love with him,” said Evan
Morganstein, the chiefknow he lost his eye in war, or
whatever.”
The joke tanked, he
received death threats, and a
week later Davidson publicly
apologised to Crenshaw.
Often, though, he has
shown surer judgement.
When asked on Saturday
Night Live in 2019 about the
20-year age gap between him
and Beckinsale, Davidson
pointedout the number of
famous men who have much
younger partners.
“Apparently people have a
crazy fascination with our age
difference,” he said and
named a string of men in
similar circumstances,
including Leonardo DiCaprio,
Jason Statham, Michael
Douglas “... and whoever the
president of France is”.
Those who have watched
his progress say Davidson has
navigated the journey to
tabloid notoriety without
losing touch with his roots in
Staten Island, a solidly
working-class area of New
York. His status as an unlikely
lothario is also integral to his
image as a performer.
The writer of a recentprofile on the Daily Beast
website gushed: “Over the
years, Davidson’s hotness has
crescendoed from a gentle
simmer — ‘He’s so cute!’— to a
full-blown, lollipop-sucking
boil. It’s an irresistible
combination: His look might
scream dirtbag chic, but the
bleached hair and cool gaze
belie the earnestness of his
broader persona.”
It was his former fiancée
Ariana Grande who perhaps
did most for his reputation.
Until then, the rest of the
world could have been
forgiven for assuming that it
was Davidson’s wit, charm
and sense of humour that had
persuaded so many famous
women to date him.
A now deleted tweet from
Grande revealed another
possibility, with the singer
blurting out that her former
beau was rather generously
endowed. “I think she’s just
tiny,” shrugged Davidson
when the inevitable questions
followed. (Grande is just over
5ft tall). “I think I have an
average-sized penis and she’s
tiny. Everything’s big to her.”
@AlistairDawberPete Davidson had
mayonnaise to sell and news
to spread that could help him
do it.
Sandwiched between
pressing questions about his
role in an advert for today’s
Super Bowl and his thoughts
on a particular brand of
doughnuts came a moment
when the comedian and actor
deftly combined several viral
ingredients to whip up a
social media storm (and boost
mayonnaise sales).
All he did was use the word
“girlfriend” for the first time
to describe his long-
rumoured romantic partner:
one of the most famous
women in the world.
“I don’t have Instagram or
Twitter or any of that stuff,”
the 28-year-old star of
Saturday Night Live told the
presenter of People (The TV
Show!) when she asked how
fame affects him. “So, like,
most of my daily life is getting
into cars and showing up to a
set. Or, if I’m off, I just either
hang with my friends or chill
with my girlfriend inside.”Alistair Dawber WashingtonDemonstrators against compulsory jabs cause chaos on the Champs-Élysées after a 600-mile journey from Nice
shows, at the age of 20. Two
years ago his compelling past
became the focus of a semi-
autobiographical film, The
King of Staten Island, which
he co-wrote and starred in.
He has spoken about his
mental health struggles and
his periodically heavy use of
marijuana to cope with
Crohn’s disease, which he has
had since he was about 17. His
father, a fireman, was killed
in the 9/11 World Trade
Centre attacks when
Davidson was seven.
His father’s badge
number, 8418, is
tattooed on his left
arm.
Davidson is funny,
self-deprecating and
often acerbic.
Sometimes his
comedy has landed
him in hot water.
In 2018 he joked that
Dan Crenshaw, a Texas
Republican and former US
Navy Seal who was then
running for Congress, having
lost an eye in an IED
explosion in Afghanistan,
looked like “a hit man in a
porno movie. I’m sorry. IFamous lovers help ‘dirtbag chic’ comic clean up as US’s fastest rising star
executive of CelebExperts, a
celebrity booking service.
A picture of Davidson and
Kardashian holding hands
emerged in October,
prompting Kanye West,
whom the reality star is
seeking to divorce after
nearly seven years of
marriage, to say that he
wanted to “beat” his
replacement for her
affections. In the advert,
Davidson jokes that he is
indeed “very hittable”.
As his stock rises,
there are rumours in
Hollywood that
Davidson will be named
as the host of next
month’s Oscars ceremony.
“If he does the Oscars,
Kanye is in the audience and
he does a Kanye joke, he’s
going to become the icon of
all icons, that’s how it works,”
said Morganstein.
While having Kardashian
on his arm is no doubt good
for his career, Davidson is a
star in his own right,
especially in America.
In 2014, he joined the cast
of Saturday Night Live, one of
America’s best-lovedPete Davidson with
Ariana Grande in 2018 and
with Kim Kardashian in
Beverly Hills last monthThe gilets jaunes are back! My days on
the road with France’s antivax convoy
Leaders’ wives
dragged into
Korea’s ‘election
of unlikeables’
spiralling house price crisis at
home, while across the
demilitarised zone, North
Korea has embarked on a
missile-testing spree.
But high as the stakes are
for the country and the
world, the neck-and-neck
race between the progressive
and conservative
frontrunners has not been
shaped by debate about these
domestic and international
challenges.
Instead, a tsunami of
scandal and skulduggery has
engulfed not only the leading
candidates but also their
wives, including accusations
of corruption, infidelity,
shamanic influence and
threats to journalists.
The two main contenders
are Lee Jae-myung, a former
provincial governor and
nominee of the ruling
Democratic Party, and Yoon
Suk-yeol, an ex-chief
prosecutor running for the
conservative People Power
Party. As their poll ratingshave soared and plunged in
response to the scurrilous
narratives, both contenders
and their spouses have issued
apologies even as their own
camps have churned out
fresh vitriolic attacks.
The latest opinion poll on
Friday put Yoon at 37 per
cent, just one point higher
than Lee, less than a month
before the election. Both have
significant disapproval
ratings in a contest of lesser
evils that political pundits
have named the “unlikeable
election”.
Both men were chosen by
their parties as combative
outsiders in an effort to win
back voters disillusioned by
the mainstream.
Lee, 57, is a charismatic
and blunt speaker who went
to work in his teens in a
factory after his father
gambled away the family’s
money, then became a lawyer
before moving into politics.
Yoon, 61, built his
reputation as an aggressiveanti-corruption prosecutor
and spearheaded the
conviction of Park Geun-hye,
the last president, who was
jailed for 22 years for
corruption and influence-
peddling. She was pardoned
in December by Moon.
Unusually, the prospective
first ladies have been at the
forefront of the furore. Kim
Hye-kyung, Lee’s wife,
apologised last week over
reports that she used her
husband’s aides to run
errands and made personal
purchases on his official
credit card. Lee had earlier
apologised for her actions
and for his son’s illegal
gambling habit.
He himself has faced
previous rumours that he had
an affair with an actress, who
claimed he had a distinctive
birthmark in a normally
concealed region, which he
responded to by undergoing a
check-up to back up his
denials. After the claims
reappeared, he said: “Do Ineed to drop my trousers
again?”
He also been dogged by
reports that as a city mayor
he oversaw a corruption-
riddled land project.
Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee,
has also been a fixture in the
headlines. In leaked phone
recordings, she threatened to
jail journalists and boasted of
her talents as a clairvoyant.
She said that Yoon also has a
“psychic streak”, which was
why they married, and gave
advice on astrology.
Her husband denied ties to
a shaman after appearing at
campaign events, including a
television debate, with his left
palm inscribed with a
character meaning “king”,
supposedly on the advice of a
fortune-teller.
He has apologised for his
wife’s comments disparaging
sexual harassment victims,
while she has said sorry for
exaggerating her academic
credentials in job
applications. Her mother alsoreceived a three-year jail
sentence for fraud in her
hospital business.
“South Korean politics has
long been a blood sport,” said
John Delury, an East Asia
expert at Yonsei University in
Seoul. “But this year there
has been very little policy
debate to supplement the
combat. So the focus is
personal attacks on the
candidates, their spouses and
families ... It is a very
dispiriting spectacle.”
Away from the dirt, the
candidates are firing off
populist giveaway promises,
with no apparent indication
of how they would be funded.
Lee has announced
pledges ranging from
universal basic income to
state support for hair
transplants and monthly
stipends for artists.
Yoon has responded with
commitments to bolster the
pay of soldiers and provide
support for post-partum
depression treatment.From K-Pop to the Oscars to
Squid Game, Netflix’s biggest
hit, South Korean cultural
exports have taken the world
by storm in recent years.
But in Seoul itself there is
one new show that is dividing
affections as much as any boy
band, and exposing the seedy
side of life among the city’s
elites more vividly even than
Parasite, the dark South
Korean satire that won the
best film Oscar in 2020.
It is the 2022 presidential
election campaign.
The contest to succeed
Moon Jae-in, who is stepping
down as the constitution
dictates after a single five-
year term, has been called
the “most distasteful” in the
country’s 35 years of
democracy.
The eventual victor will
enter the presidential Blue
House next month facing
economic troubles and aPhilip Sherwell
Asia CorrespondentLee Jae-myung is
a frontrunner but
his wife, Kim
Hye-kyung, is
accused of using
his aides to
run errandsmost prominent figures is a shadowy
individual known only by the pseudo-
nym, Rémi Monde.
I met him on Friday when the convoy
stopped in Dijon. He would reveal only
that he is 33, lives in Montélimar in south-
ern France and is a “personal develop-
ment coach, specialising in non-violent
communication” — good preparation for
yesterday’s trouble. “I am just an honest
citizen, who wants to have his say,” he
told me. “And I am not the only one.
There are very many of us.”
The movement’s main target is the
government’s pass vaccinal, which
imposes restrictions on the
un-jabbed that critics say turns
them into second-class citizens.
But the convoy’s expanding
demands include lower fuel prices,
higher living standards and a new politi-
cal system without professional politi-
cians, in an echo of the gilets jaunes,
whose initial protests about taxes on die-
sel turned into a full-fledged provincial
revolt.
It had all begun so differently earlier in
the week when the first of the convoys set
out on Wednesday morning from Nice
and other spots along the Cote d’Azur to
drive the 600 miles north to Paris.
There was a party atmosphere the
next evening as I watched the first arriv-
als, horns honking, pull into an out-of-
town shopping centre on the eastern out-
skirts of Lyons, greeted by locals who laid
out piles of food and drink for them.
The bulk of the convoy was made up of
cars, with some motorbikes and camperhadowy
pseudo-convoy
eal only
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om Nice
’Azur to
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ere the
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ern out-
who laid
em.
de up of
camperA protester in
Dijon pays tribute
to the French
symbol
Marianne. Top,
the convoy in
Lyon and flares at
the Arc de
TriompheNATHAN LAINE FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES; CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/EPAsed of using
des to
rrands