French press review 8 August 2014

President Hollande is facing trouble at home, the Ukrainian crisis spills over to French farmers, and scouts are becoming more popular amongst Muslim children. 

It seems that today everyone is criticising François Hollande.

This is at least what the leading newspaper Le Monde is saying. Yesterday was a bad day for the French president. First the constitutional council scrapped part of one of Hollande's biggest economic reform proposals. And then Germany says it refuses to change its economic policy despite Hollande calls for a more social Europe. The month of September is going to be complicated for the French president, reads Le Monde.

In other news, French farmers are worried over the Ukrainian crisis. This is according to the newspaper Libération. Yesterday Russia banned food importation from the EU. Not only does this impact Ukraine and Poland, but now French farmers are also worried that they might loose money over the crisis. According to left leaning Libé, 3% of French exportations are now banned in Russia. That represents more than 275 million Euros.

Xavier Beulin, the president of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions says French farmers will have to find new markets for their fruit and vegetables. But that might prove tricky, and the Russian ban could start a crisis, here in France and in Europe.

The Communist daily l'Hummanité says Roma are being mistreated by the French government. The newspaper has a very interesting report on the topic. France has made headlines for the past few years for its tough stance on Roma camps. The French police regularly expel Roma to Romania or Bulgaria. But there is one problem, according to l'Huma... Most of the members of the Roma community in France are European Union citizens. That means they have the same rights than French citizens. France was actually condemned by the European Committee for social rights for this discrimination. And now, a Roma community in Nanterres, a town located next to Paris, has decided to take action. L'Humanité seems to think that France might be forced to rethink its integration policy in the near future.

And finally, scouts are getting more popular in Paris' suburbs. That's according to the newspaper Le Figaro. Apparently more and more young students are joining the scouts movement. What is surprising, according to the right-leaning newspaper, is that most of them are from the Seine Saint Denis department, which is far from being the richest area around Paris. But what is new is that more and more Muslim children are joining. According to Antoine Dulin, the head of the French scouts, that does not really change anything. The menus have just changed to include meals without pork.