French press review 23 December 2014

Doctors on strike, terrorism, Greek political problems and the nightmare of long-term unemployment . . . those are this morning's main front-page offerings here in France.

Le Monde copies a headline from yesterday's Le Figaro, saying the doctors are on strike in protest against the increasing involvement of the state in the medical sector.

Basically, general practitioners will not be available from today until the end of the month, a period when the country is expected to be ravaged by epidemics of flu and gastro-enteritis. Le Monde says emergency services will work normally over the strike period, but there might be a long queue.

Left-leaning Libération thinks the whole thing is a mistake, but is not too sure who to blame. Basically, the government wants everyone to have health insurance in addition to the existing state-funded system. The end result would be "free" consultations, since doctors would recuperate their fees from the government and from the third-party insurers. So far, so good. But the doctors are against the proposals, ostensibly because they feel it would simply encourage more and frequently unnecessary visits to the leech. What they are not saying is that the new scheme would effectively give the government complete control over the amount doctors and, indeed, pharmacies are paid, since it would end the system under which patients pay way above the standard rate for consultations which are dubiously categorised as "specialist". The battle continues.

There's something fishy about the front page of conservative paper, Le Figaro. The headline reads "Terrorism: Manuel Valls sounds the alarm". What is true is that the French prime minister yesterday warned that the country faced an unprecedented threat. His remarks were provoked by recent attacks by suspected extremists on crowds of Christmas shoppers. The fact that at least one of the cases clearly involved a mentally deranged attacker doesn't stop Figaro from stirring the pot in which various right-wing psychoses are simmering . . . radicalisation of the muslim population, the return of holy warriors from Stria and Iraq, the war of civilisations. Of course, no one wants to be driven over by a lunatic in a truck while out buying the mince pies. But it is surely unwise to generalise and call, as the conservative parliamentarian, Eric Ciotti, has done, for the withdrawal of French nationality from those responsible for such crimes. Ciotti believes that it is not surprising that fragile personalities are those most readily attracted by the warped logic of sectarianism.

The Greeks are having trouble agreeing on who might be their next president. They leave this sort of choice to the parliament, but the lads have so far been unable to come up with a winner. They'll try again later today to collect a few more votes for the coalition candidate, Stavros Dimas. And, if that doesn't work, they have one last chance, on December 29. In a wonderful case of the tail wagging the dog to a standstill, if Greece still has no president by then, the parliament will have to be dissolved and that will mean an early election. After which the whole process will start again, dog and tail heading in their separate directions.

Communist L'Humanité is quite excited about the whole affair, since there's a chance that the left-wing anti-austerity Syriza party will do well in a snap election, and that would be seen as a victory for the European hordes who have, so far, quietly bent their necks to the burden of government-imposed grief.

Le Monde looks at those who will spend the holiday period in French prisons. There are 67 thousand of them, struggling to live in a sytem designed for no more than 57 thousand prisoners. Over-population in French jails is estimated at about 16 per cent, but in some establishments in the area around Paris, that goes up to 39 per cent.

Since we're talking statistics, 979 prisoners are obliged to sleep on the floor; there are 686 minors behind bars, and 2,777 women.

French law guarantees an individual cell to every prisoner. But that law has never been applied since it was first passed in 1875.

Iceland has the thinnest prison population in Europe, with 50 of every 100,000 inhabitants behind bars. Georgia is the European leader, with 541 prisoners for every 100,000 people.