French press review 29 January 2014

Will Hollande's new economic policy work? Will bosses deliver on promises to employ more workers? Has Hollande gone German? An,d are returning jihadis a danger to France?

Le Monde looks at the French unemployment statistics, source of so much difficulty for President François Hollande in yesterday's papers.

The problem dates back to September 2012 and a presidential promise to reverse the trend of the unemployment graph by the end of 2013. Earlier this week, the figures for December were published and presidential hopes were dashed, an additional 10,000 on the dole queues bringing to 3,300,000 the number of French people out of work.

Speaking yesterday during his state visit to Turkey, Hollande made the best of a bad job, admitting that he'd been wrong, hoping that a new deal, currently being negotiated with the employers, will improve things in the medium term.

First of all, of course, that new deal has to be agreed. According to the main story in business daily Les Echos, the negotiations with the bosses are not going well.

The basic idea is a simple one - companies will take on more staff and the authorities will take back less in taxation and social charges.

But the bosses don't want to accept any new obligations in return for their efforts. Companies normally take on staff because they need them, not as a way of earning government subventions. The whole plan looks more and more doubtful. Anyway, the operation is to be financed directly from savings on public spending, a source which the captains of industry, not surprisingly, regard with suspicion.

Hollande has yet another girlfriend, according to the cruel front page of Libération, a left-leaning publication. The president's latest flirtation is with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, or rather with her social-democrat style of running the labour market.

The fact is that the French president two months ago met a man by the name of Peter

Hartz, known as the father of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's labour reforms. Hartz was responsibile for a series of laws, notably reducing from 32 to 12 months the entitlement to social welfare and generally making it either essential or worthwhile to get back to work.

But, asks Libé, could the German system work in France, especially under a socialist administration?

Catholic La Croix looks at the dangers posed by radical Islam in France, asking what is and should be done to counter the threat.

The government is alarmed at the number of young French Muslims believed to have fought on the rebel side in Syria and likely to return to France, where they could eventually become security risks. The French information services are currently keeping tabs on nearly 700 youngsters who have been trained as holy warriors.

The Catholic paper warns against generalisations, saying that current policy is too solidly anchored in the domain of repression and that it needs to move to comprehension through dialogue.

There is also a need for a Europe-wide policy on returning fighters.