French press review 3 July 2015

This morning's front pages suggest that the nation's editors may be trying to save money by recycling stories.

The main headline in Le Monde, for example, tells us that "The Greek crisis is putting the Franco-German alliance under strain". That story was elsewhere yesterday.

Catholic La Croix tells us that Sunday's referendum has added a layer of perplexity to an already fraught situation, leaving the individual Greek voter with the sense that he or she

holds responsibility for the future of the eurozone. And the situation is not made any easier by the propaganda war been waged between an Athens government which requires a resounding "no" vote, and the international creditors who want a "yes", and their money back.

Right-wing Le Figaro asks if we should be scared at the prospect of a Greek exit form the single currency, an outcome which the conservative paper now considers a real possibility. Figaro publishes contradictory analyses by various experts, some suggesting that Greece is actually a very small part of an extremely powerful financial machine, and that the wheels will continue to turn even without Athens and its attendant debts. Others say, no, European growth and investment will suffer huge setbacks if the Greeks get out.

Le Figaro's editorial is scathing of the stance of the Greek socialist government, saying they have changed their promises and demands on an almost daily basis. And now they are on the brink of voting themselves out of the euro.

This, says Le Figaro, will be a disaster for the Greek people who face massive devaluation, bank closures, a paralysed economy and shortages of practically everything. No wonder, says the right-wing daily, that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras punctuates his tirades against the creditors with assurances that Greece wants to stay in Europe. He knows what side his bread is buttered on.

Europe would certainly be better off to let the Greeks go, according to the same editorial. Except that such a departure will underline what an awful lot of people already suspect: the european single currency is a house of cards, and the absence of Athens will simply shift the attention of the financial markets to Lisbon or Nicosia, possibly even Madrid, Rome or Paris. In the Greek crisis, says Le Figaro, Europe is playing doubles or quits.

According to communist daily L'Humanité, Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stieglitz and Paul Krugman are just three of the big-name economists who support the Tsipras government against Europe. Krugman, who won the Nobel Economics Prize in 2008 says Europe has made Tsipras an offer that no reasonable leader could accept. And Europe knows what it is doing. The whole point of the exercise is to dislodge an uppity administration, says

Krugman, and that should be of major concern for all who believe in the European ideal.

Left-leaning Libération does break ranks by publishing a Greek-free front page. 

It is worried about the heat as temperatures soar into the 40s.

Libé also looks at the shadowy individuals who are encouraging young French Muslims to sign up for holy war. According to the Paris daily, investigators have been able to trace the tragic histories of all recent perpetrators of Islamist crime in France back to the influence of teachers encountered in prison or in mosques not considered to be radical. Many of these recruiters have a shared background in the Algerian GIA or Armed Islamic Group.

According to Libé, the 2008 fusion of two police units into the current Central Direction for Internal Intelligence, a fusion championed by former president and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has had disastrous consequences, notably in breaking up certain teams of investigators and allowing key suspects to escape observation.

All papers note that a French court yesterday suspended the suspension of Jean-Marie Le Pen from the right-wing Front National party which Le Pen helped to found. The father of the current party president is thus reinstated as Honorary President of the organisation which threw him out for his tendency to say disobliging things about Jews and the war.

He'll have to get a move on if he wants to use his re-instatement to be offensive. The party plans a vote by the membership next week as a result of which, if all goes as planned, they'll throw the old geezer out again.