French press review 21 August 2014

President François Hollande and the press have never been a good match - and today criticism of the leader over his economic policies is particularly withering.

Le Monde has an exclusive interview with the French President which centres on his strategy to lead France out of its economic stupor and address rising unemployment.

Hollande's trump card continues to be the so-called Responsibility Pact, an agreement meant to slash labour costs and boost business. He first announced the bill early in January and it has yet to prove its worth.

In an analysis next to the two-page conversation, Le Monde thinks Hollande did not say much new.

Quite the contrary, he stresses the fact that he will remain consistent with former policy. His main point is to speed up reforms - on housing, investment, certain professions and education. As Le Monde points out, speed is not the same thing as efficiency. Most of these reforms have been on the table for some time, and implementing them fast won't necessarily mean they will work.

Hollande's aim in giving an interview was clear, according to the paper: he wanted to pre-empt criticism so that the start of the fall season won't be as disastrous as his detractors think. But the press is not fooled.

Conservative Le Figaro runs with the headline: "Hollande doesn't want to change anything." A caustic editorial says the head of state is treading water, unravelling some of his own promises and tinkering with decisions he made some two years ago. Le Figaro says the country is going down a dead-end street, with a budget deficit that isn't getting any smaller.

And Hollande didn't win any hearts on the left either. Libération thinks that in his desperation to create jobs, Hollande is veering to the right, while still whistling a Socialist tune, devoid of content.

Communist L'Humanité's front cover shows the man waving, with the headline: "Adieu to the Left!"

The paper comments that Hollande may quicken his pace all he wants, but the rest of France no longer wants to follow him. He has now joined the dark side: finance, something he swore was his worst enemy back when he was a candidate. L'Huma points out that you can't criticize austerity measures elsewhere in Europe, while introducing them in your own country. The press is tired of Hollande's double-speak.

In international news, Libération looks at the way the US is dealing with the news of journalist James Foley's death at the hands of Islamic State militants. The daily says six Americans have been beheaded by jihadists since 2002 - and each time, the American people want to respond in an Old Testament style (that is: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth). The French dailies are familiar with these issues, as France struggles to deal with kidnapped nationals on a regular basis.

But the paper says Barack Obama's tactics are more low key than that of the French. When he came to power, he did everything possible to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor in the Middle East. This essentially meant ignoring it as much as possible. But with the IS having seized part of Iraq, that's no longer possible. James Foley's execution needs to be understood in that context. It's a clear message to the US, and Obama's condemnation of the movement as a cancer comes a little too late.

And finally, for anyone who spent some of their schooling in France, the sound of a roomful of ten year-olds trying to play the recorder is painfully familiar. Though music classes used to require every child to learn the instrument, Le Figaro tells us now it's entirely out of fashion: teachers are relying more and more on kid's voices. Schools have been teaching kids how to play the recorder since the end of the Second World War, but it was a chore for most, including the teachers. Now, the instrument has been officially dropped and thanks to the movie Les Choristes, singing is all the rage.