Skip to main content

French press review 23 September 2014

Two very different types of menace dominate this morning's front pages. You can take your pick between global warming and Islamic State (IS) terrorism.

Advertising

Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro all focus on the terrorists. Le Monde gives pride of place to yesterday's call from the group, which is currently active in Syria and Iraq, for the murder of French and American citizens in response to the French government's participation in US-led airstrikes against jihadist targets.

Le Monde asks just what is known of the Algerian "Soldiers of the Caliphate," the group which on Sunday kidnapped a French hiker in Algeria and are now threathening to kill him unless France withdraws from the coalition of nations fighting to stop the IS.

The "soldiers" are Salafists, fundamentalists who basically believe that salvation is only possible for those prepared to return to the customs and practices current at the time of the Prophet Mohamed, 1400 years ago.

This Algerian group was formerly part of al-Qaida of the Islamic Magreb and signed on with Islamic State earlier this month, on 14 September. At that stage the group gave as its central ambition the return of north Africa and the Sahel region to the "straight path of Islam".

The Soldiers of the Caliphate are led by Gouri Abdelmalek, also known as Khaled Abou Souleimane,condemned to death in his absence in March 2012 by a court in Algiers for his part in an attack on a police station in the eastern Kabylia region.

Libération's main headline reads "France in the line of fire".

Conservative paper Le Figaro says the country faces nothing less than extremist blackmail.

The Figaro editorial carries the ambiguous headline "Cold blood", either to be undestood as a reference to the quality of determined calm which is now required of the Paris authorities or to the appalling capacity of Islamic State militants to call for and carry out the murder of "infidels" unfortunate enough to fall into their hands.

"France is not afraid," said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve yesterday. Le Figaro points out that Islamic State has no shortage of experienced hands in France, Europe's leader in the export of holy warriors to the Middle East, with an estimated 200 returnees from the war zones representing a dangerous enemy within the walls. If France is not afraid this morning, many French people certainly are.

As if all that wasn't enough, there's the parlous state of the global climate with an atmosphere ravaged by carbon dioxide. The United Nations is meeting as we speak to sort it all out. In the meantime, Catholic daily paper La Croix wants to know who are the worst offenders. Europe's respectable position in the pollution tables is due to its capacity to shift its most damaging industries to countries with lower overall CO² emmissions - and lower rates of pay.

Communist L'Humanité has it all figured out: the globe is going down the tubes because climate has been sacrificed to capitalist greed. The only thing that can save us is brotherly solidarity, citizens against the conglomerates. Putting manners on the Chinese would help as well . . . they currently produce one million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, more than the US, India and all of Europe combined.

And let's not forget the Air France pilots, many of whom are on strike for the ninth day today.

The strikers fear for their own jobs and conditions as the national carrier soils its hands in the cut-rate world of budget travel. The strike is costing the company an estimated 20 millions euros every day and incalculable sums in customers lost to budget carriers. La Croix says the pilot's refusal to negotiate is damaging the image of the national transport industry and may well lead to more job losses at Air France.

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.