French press review 23 April 2014

There's a strange contrast between the front pages of Le Monde and those of four other national dailies today.

Le Monde's main headline, inspired by the fact that today sees the opening of the world summit on the government of the internet, reads "Brazil leads revolt against US web  monopoly."

The summit is being held in Sao Paulo, and the Brazillian president, Dilma Rousseff, says she wants to see the world-wide web de-Americanised.

Dilma was the dame who cancelled a state visit to Washington when she discovered that Barack and the boys had been listening to her private phone calls. She has since spearheaded the rather vague coalition of those who don't understand the technology but agree it would be a good thing for Uncle Sam to have his electronic ears clipped.

Washington has already accepted to give up control of the allocation of domain names - the bits after the full stop in internet addresses - which is not a major concession in security terms but was sufficient to inflame the Republicans. They see it as an Obama-sanctioned internationalisation of the internet.

The facts, commercial and historical, are on the side of the Americans. They own most of the big companies and they dragged the original idea into the 20th century. So the Sao Paulo summit is not going to change much. But it might move the world slightly closer to a communications tool which is democratic, transparent, serious and respectful of cultural diversity.

All the other papers look at austerity, as the French cabinet settles down this very morning to read the small print on Manuel Valls's plan to hack 50 billion euros off state spending over the next three years.

It's a story to make your eyes glaze over. Everyone agrees that savings have to be made. The debate is about whether it is reasonable for a Socialist administration to propose cutting social spending, reducing allowances, generally making things harder for the least well off.

Catholic paper La Croix says the crucial question is where to apply the cuts. Communist L'Humanité warns that, between generalised hardship and social justice, there is no debate. The Communists continue to reject the Brussels-imposed ceiling of three per cent - that's how much the national debt should be of the national ability to produce - saying France should take heart from left-wing objectors in such economic powerhouses as Greece, Italy and Spain.

Right-wing Le Figaro is happy to present a prime minister obliged to negotiate with his own parliamentary rank and file. Le Figaro says pressure from unhappy Socialists will force certain concessions on the savings plan. The right-wing paper says the least well off may get a reprieve, as may some struggling civil servants. Which will mean more pressure on the budgets of local administrations and, ultimately, more tax.

The editorial in left-leaning Libération wonders if the current discontent in the Socialist household could lead to a government defeat when the savings bill has to be voted on, next Monday.

No way is the simple answer.

The government majority may be slight and fragile, there's a lot of anger and discontent among the troops but they're not daft. They know that a government defeat would lead, almost certainly, to a general election. And, after the pounding just inflicted on Socialist contenders in the local elections, avoiding an early return to the urn is a no-brainer.