French weekly magazines review

Fear stalks the Eurosummit. Germanophobia stalks France (allegedly). Are social security scroungers responsible for the French economy's problems? Or are rich tax dodgers the real culprits? And there's new video footage in the Strauss-Kahn affair.

The big story attracting the most comments in the magazines is the agreement reached at this week’s EU summit in Brussels on a new "golden rule" to bring down debt and to set "balanced" budgets.

Le Point claims that the so-called “last-chance summit”, which reinstated the long-ignored rule that budget deficits must be under three per cent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product, was held in an atmosphere of fear.

The Standard & Poor's ratings agency has warned France, Germany and 13 other eurozone members that they faced a possible downgrade amid worsening economic conditions and discord among the region's leadership. While Germany is in the same dock, France distinguishes itself by being the only one of the six countries with the hallowed Triple-A rating that may see two notches knocked off.

Le Canard Enchaîné labels President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel Sarkel and Merko suggesting with a note of sarcasm that they enjoy spending every week saving or fixing the euro. The satirical weekly claims that the Elysée’s tenant, who has been under surveillance by several rating agencies, feels less lonely now, to face the blade of the guillotine, if France loses its triple A alongside the eurozone’s 17 members.

Le Canard says that all the sweet talk about enshrining a golden rule on budget orthodoxy and a reform of the Maastricht treaty does not address the urgent issue: how to service the EU’s colossal debt burden.

The newspaper wonders how long the spectre of a downgrade will continue hanging over the head of France. The paper says uncertainty will continue looming on the euro until another so-called “decisive summit” set for March.

Le Point takes up a wave of “Germanophobia” sweeping across France. The right-wing magazine underlines that passions have flared over the perceived impression that Chancellor Angela Merkel is dictating austerity measures to France and Europe.

Le Point believes the hostility towards Berlin is not only being fanned by the far-right and left-wing extremists but also by the Socialists. It points to presidential candidate François Hollande, who recently suggested it is Merkel who decides while Sarkozy walks along.

Le Nouvel Observateur comments in a special report that Europe looks set to become the battleground of the presidential duel between Sarkozy and Hollande. The magazine’s position is inspired by the ruling party’s attempt to discredit the Socialist Party’s commitment to Europe and Hollande’s visit to Berlin where he attended a congress of the German Social Democratic Party.

Marianne believes the trip has lain to rest any deep-rooted differences resulting from the Sarkozy/Merkel agenda. But it notes that Hollande’s offer of a pact of responsibility, governance and growth as well as for a more balanced Franco-German relationship will need time to win over minds in a country passionate about budget responsibility.

The trip marked a turning point in Hollande’s campaign strategy against Sarkozy according to Le Nouvel Observateur. The Socialist candidate, it says, is ready to hit back sooner and harder every time he comes under attack from the president.

Le Point examines the crusade against social security fraud which ruling party strategists are struggling to transform into a campaign issue. The newspaper identifies sick leave, dole cheating, welfare allowances, undeclared work and wealth-tax evasion as elements of a national sport that has ruined the economy.

Marianne picks out the heirs of CAC-40 companies and other wealthy families exiled in Switzerland as the root cause of France’s economic decline. The paper investigates how thousands of oligarchs have erected fiscal havens for themselves and managed to evade the heavy hand of the law.

L’Express revisits the continuing saga of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in the wake of the latest revelations that have set the conspiracy theorists abuzz again. The affair took a new twist this week when a French television channel aired a video taken by security cameras at the New York Sofitel where the sex scandal broke out.

L’Express releases new revelations about the pseudo-plot, facts about the Lille Carlton Hotel connection and flaws in Strauss-Kahn’s communication strategy. The investigative report includes excerpts from two books written by American journalist Edward Epstein and Frenchman Michel Taubman which shed new light on the affair.

The right-wing magazine explains that while some of the graphic details appear to favour Strauss-Kahn, his lawyers are quiet worried they could hurt his defence in the civil-law suit filed by hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo.

One of the arguments L’Express raises about the Carlton Hotel connection is that DSK was certainly aware that someone paid for the travel costs of his orgy partners to Washington and that his playmates at Carlton Hotel’s libertine evenings in Lille were actually paid professionals.