French press review 18 February 2015

Investigators find out how the Charlie Hebdo killers and their accomplice who killed hostages in a kosher supermarket coordinated their actions. Ukraine’s war brings devastation. France’s ruling Socialists run into a political crisis. And PSG didn't dazzle.

Le Monde's front page leads with findings of the investigation of last month's attacks in Paris.

One of the revelations is that Kouachi brothers had sent an SMS to the third attacker Amedy Coulibaly on 7 January, one hour before the attack on Charlie Hebdo office. Details of the findings feature on the next four pages.

The paper also has a special two-page photo feature on the war in Ukraine. The photos were taken by Capucine Granier-Deferre, who followed a special unit of the separatists in the region of Debaltsevo.

There are photos of members of the artillery brigade Slavik operating communications equipment. The main photo is of a shell being fired from an artillery gun. This photo was taken on 13 February, just two days before the ceasefire came into existence.

The related report tells the story of a small village Logvinova which was seized by the rebels just four days ago.

It says that, out of the 30 houses in the village, only one is standing while the rest of the village is just a pile of rubble, strewn with corpses of Ukrainian soldiers who died defending this strategic location.

Granier-Deferre spent three days with this unit.

Libération leads with the headline “49.3 Manu Militari” with a photograph of Prime

Minister Manuel Valls.

The headline is in reference to the use of the article 49.3 by Valls to force the passage of the “Macron bill”, Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron’s package of economic changes that includes extensions of Sunday working and other proposals that have split the ruling Socialist Party.

The daily says that this has the consequence of further weakening the government's majority.

The left-leaning daily devotes three pages to the passage of the bill in the parliament.

The main report on the second page is headlined “Macron Bill: Manuel Valls plays dirty”. It states that this was the first time that a left government had used a decree against its own majority.

The Macron bill is aimed at introducing reforms like increasing shops’s opening hours and deregulating certain sectors, which Macron argues will boost growth.

The sports daily L’Equipe’s front page has the headline “Frustrating” with a photograph of Paris St Germain striker Edinson Cavani.

The headline is in reference to the 1-1 draw between PSG and Chelsea in their Champions League pre-quarter-final match at Parc des Princes last night.

The strap with the headline says that the score line was frustrating for PSG as it had created many goal scoring chances and had dominated the English club.

It adds that the draw had put Chelsea in a position of strength for their return leg that at Stamford Bridge on 11 March.

L’Equipe devotes four pages to this match and a couple more to the other Champions League encounters.