Skip to main content

French press review 7 May 2014

It's hard to get away from South Africa this morning . . . both catholic La Croix and communist L'Humanité give pride of place to today's elections in the rainbow nation.

Advertising

For La Croix, these are the first elections of the post-Mandela era; for L'Humanité, the recent campaign has simply underlined the fact that, twenty years after the end of apartheid, inequality and social tension remain central to the lives of a majority of South Africans. There'll be no surprises when the votes are counted, says L'Humanité, and, sadly, no real change.

Slideshow Mandela

Elections and change are the key words on the front page of conservative paper Le Figaro. There we learn that French president François Hollande, in line with his promise to streamline local government by reducing the number of administrative regions, has proposed holding the next regional elections in 2016, a year later than scheduled.

There seems to be a certain amount of sense in postponing elections for bodies which are likely to cease to exist early in the course of their normal five-year life span. But the political opposition is not looking out of that eye, as the French like to say. The conservatives claim it's nothing more than a Socialist ruse to avoid another election thrashing.

François Hollande will have his work cut out for him because, apart from the strident baying of his right-wing opponents, he'll have to contend with some additional resistance from Socialist comrades, currently in control of a large majority of regional and departmental administrations, who won't let their jobs go without a certain amount of handbag swinging.

Libération looks at the bizarre contrast between the French president and his Industry Minister on the question of foreign investment. Minister Montebourg, he whose job it is to get the nation's industries working again, is broadly against selling too much of the silverware to filthy foreigners.

That's why he's so against the bid by America's General Electric for the Alstom engineering operation. The president, on the other hand, can't have enough foreign investment, inviting the giants of Silicon Valley to set up shop in France where they will be "welcom-éd with zee arm opens".

Libé accepts that a certain amount of caution is necessary, but insists France can't afford to be too choosy about potential business partners in these tough times. American investors outnumber the next three nations combined (they are Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain) so Arnaud Montebourg better get his English up to the presidential level and prepare his welcoming smile.

The 12 billion offered by General Electric for Alstom is the biggest American investment of all time, say the financial analysts at Standard & Poor's. For Libé, the important message is that France is not the industrial wasteland of popular depression, but a place in which foreign investors are prepared to risk large sums of moolah. Roll out the red carpet!

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.