French press review 10 September 2015

The refugee crisis in Europe continues to make the headlines, after the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for more solidarity and less repression.

DR

Libération says "Europe is doing too little, too late".

The left-leaning newspaper joins forces with 12 other European newspapers, including Spain's El Pais, Britain's The Independent and Italy's La Repubblica in a clarion call on the EU's 28 members to step up assistance to the refugees. About 42,000 refugees are expected to reach Hungary, Austria and Germany within the next 10 days.

As far as France is concerned, the left-leaning newspaper points an accusing finger at some right-wing mayors who have said they would take in some people, but under certain conditions   meaning, only take in what they descibe as "good" migrants.

What does that means exactly?

Xavier Bertrand, a Les Republicains mayor, said he will not accept new refugees, explaining he didn't know how to "welcome them, train them or give them a job."

Libération also reports that the first 78 Iraqi and Syrian asylum seekers officially welcomed in solidarity with Germany arrived on Wednesday in the great Parisian region.

Right-wing Le Figaro runs an exclusive interview with the leader of the main opposition, Les Republicains Party's Nicolas Sarkozy. He says he has a plan for the migrants.

The problem needs to be tackled from its roots, with the target being the Islamic State armed group. He adds that this could be done in only several months. He further says that it was a major mistake to create what he says is a new Cold War with Russia, since "we need them to tackle the Syrian crisis".

The Catholic newspaper La Croix dedicates its editorial to the refugees as well. It reports that some mayors would be more than willing to accept refugees within their cities, but only if they are Christian.

La Croix writes that these restrictive reactions are unacceptable, and points out that if this phenomenon is indeed seen on the scale of cities it is just as true at the scale of countries.

The daily says that what must be fought above all else is the will to choose to welcome migrants according to their religion. The editorial ends by saying that those who only want to welcome Christian families are only harming the reputation of their religion: The West's social rejection will be used to justify the Islamist social rejection.

Finally, the editorial of L'Humanité says this was a "deadly summer", one that has known two crises. On one hand is Greece, and on the other it denounces the "obnoxious" bargainings among the EU states when it comes to the plight of the refugees, especially when they have fled from war-torn countries.

The communist paper says it is about time Europe re-invented itself to become more open to the world before crawling under rising xenophobia such as can be seen today in several Eastern European countries.