French press review 26 June 2014

A presidentially commissioned study looks into the future. A union leader defends the recent rail strike. And how will France face up to Nigeria in the World Cup?

What will France be like in 10 years' time?

That's the question which has been exercising Jean Pisani-Ferry, the commissioner general responsible for strategy and the future, which is no mean job title.

The commissioner has just reported to the government and the prognosis is not good.

We all know we're in trouble. Pisani-Ferry attempts to explain why.

Basically French institutions and the national mentality have failed to adapt to the potential represented by the global economy, he finds:

• People no longer believe in politics;
• French society is profoundly unfair to the poor;
• the state is a bad employer, continuing to choose top executives from the same élite that has failed in the past;
• the level of social security spending cannot be fixed when the economy is in decline;
• small and medium businesses need to be encouraged and this can be done by investing more in research and development;
• France needs to sort out its relations, social, political and economic, with the European Union, with a view to ending the energy-sapping conflict between Paris and Brussels.

Worryingly, the major reforms undertaken by the Socialist government over the past two years are not moving in the directions suggested by the commissioner of the future.

France currently languishes in 18th place of 25 countries in the Better Life Index published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The index looks at such factors as income, education, health and job satisfaction. Sweden is the best place in the OECD list and Poland the worst.

Two other front pages give hints as to why France ranks so low . . . "Austerity, struggle, strikes . . ." feature in the main headline in communist L'Humanité, while conservative paper Le Figaro has "Police officers protest against penal reforms."

L'Humanité's main story is an interview with the head honcho at the CGT trade union.

According to him, the recent strike at the national railway company was in the public interest, since it was a way of opening the public's eyes to the damaging implications of government plans for reforming the rail sector. Most independent analysts agree that reform is inevitable, and the public is, perhaps, more interested in a regular train service than protecting what some perceive as the outdated privileges of a small number of workers.

The unhappy police officers in Le Figaro are worried that the legal reforms proposed by Justice Minister Christiane Taubira are going to make their job impossible.

Keen to reduce the French prison population, Taubira wants to see fewer minor crimes punished by automatic prison sentences, with the perpetrators being subject to various sanctions, short of being locked up.

"Unbalanced" is the uncompromising verdict of the top cops' union on the proposals, which, they say, will have a negative effect on the security of the law-abiding public. The police are also aggrieved that the new rules on the holding and interrogation of witnesses are excessively complicated.

Thankfully, there's still the national football team!

Perhaps the lads at sports daily L'Equipe are being ironic with a main headline which reads "Anything is possible". That's in reference to the immediate future of the French football squad, disappointingly held to a scoreless draw last night by 10-man Ecuador but safely into the World Cup quarter-finals. The French will meet Nigeria on Monday.

The easy part is over, says an inside headline in the same paper, warning that Nigeria have a great goalkeeper and a really sharp attack. There are no second chances from now on, winners advancing, losers going home.