French press review 13 March 2014

The French Justice Minister, Christiane Taubira, is no stranger to the French front pages today.

This morning she is accused of lying by right-wing Le Figaro, and of a major error by left-leaning Libération.

Twelve months after the Cahuzac affair, which saw another government minister forced to resign because he lied about his overseas financial position, Taubira is back in the media spotlight either because she got her dates mixed up, or because she, too, told a bit of a lie.

The crucial question is at what stage was she informed that phone lines associated with former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were being tapped as part of the investigation into the financing of the 2007 presidential campaign.

She says she learned about the whole affair by reading Le Monde on 7 March. Unfortunately, she has since told a press conference that she knew at the end of February. The point is that the political right is using this error or untruth as a stick with which to beat the government, claiming that there's a political agenda at work in the determination to find Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of something.

The conservative UMP is delighted to see the government, once again, get its wires crossed. With ten days to go to the first round of voting in municipal elections, this latest rebound has enabled to right to kill off the other spying story, involving former Sarkozy advisor, Patrick Buisson, and his recording of meetings of the UMP inner circle.

Paradoxically, the crucial question of whether money from Libyan dictator Moamer Khadafi was used to finance Sarkozy's 2007 campaign, seems almost a side issue.

Under the headline "Mammy robbers behind bars," popular Aujourd'hui en France reports that the police in Nice have arrested 15 members of a gang that has been stealing clothes. What's different about this gang is that they're women, many of them mothers, and they've been ripping off top quality emporia on the Côte d'Azur. Investigating officers found hundreds of thousands of euros worth of clothing. Six of the dedicated followers of fashion have so far been jailed. The police are interviewing security personnel at some of the targeted establishments. Further arrests are expected.

Catholic La Croix looks at "The Frank Effect," the chap in question being Pope Francis, who took over the Roman Church's top job just one year ago.

He's been a great success, wowing the fithful and impressing even embattled anti-catholics with his openness, honesty and charm. Says La Croix, the fact that Francis has managed to impress even American evangelicals, most of them to the far right of Luther and Calvin, is testimony to the new pope's remarkable capacity to unite divergent points of view.

Some traditional catholics are worried that the new man at the helm is not tough enough on sin and sinners; other appreciate his human touch. It will take longer than twelve months to figure out who's right, but the signs are promising.

Communist L'Humanité looks at the plight of older unemployed French workers. Too young to retire, too old to get new jobs, they are thus reduced to surviving on 477 euros of state handouts per month. The socialist promise to re-introduce a sort of pre-retirement fund abolished by Nicolas Sarkozy four years ago has never been acted upon.

Nearly one million older employees are concerned.