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French press review 12 September 2015

European divisions deepen as time runs out to share the burden of refugees streaming in; ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy is in the lead as preparations for the 2016 Les Républicains primaries heat up; and an atmophere of fear hangs over the Versailles exhibition featuring Anish Kapoor's  "Queen's Vagina" degraded by fundamentalist vandals.

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The migrants’ crisis still dominates the front pages with Le Figaro reporting that deep disagreements complicating a response to the emergency have worsened.

New footage from Hungary shows police throwing sandwiches at refugees at a camp. Meanwhile the country’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is urging the European Union to raise a 3-billion-euro aid package for Syria's neighbours Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the first ports of call for Syrians trying to escape conflict. Orban’s offer is backed by threats to arrest any migrants entering Hungary illegally.

His hard-line stance, according to Le Figaro, has deepened the rift between Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland which have turned a deaf ear to Germany’s proposals to share around 160,000 migrants fleeing violence in the Middle East   particularly Syria and Asia.

Germany, which has taken the lion's share by admitting 450,000 refugees so far this year, is also facing resistances in some western EU countries including France, where there conservative parties are expressing concerns about the effects on national budgets of hosting the more than 430,000 migrants and refugees who have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe since the start of this year.

An example cited by the paper is the case of some 40 families from the Syrian city of Homs, who are facing expulsion from an apartment building in Toulouse where they have been squatting since their arrival in June. Le Monde argues that the migrants’ crisis has at least compelled French politicians to clarify their stance on the issue.

The paper paints a grim photograph of the dramatic twist the crisis has taken since the discovery of the Syrian toddler’s remains on a Turkish beach. The article titled “24 hours in the Europe of migrants” documents the violent images turning up from Tunisia, Greece, Hungary, Sicily, Vintimilla, Calais, Munich, Madrid, Istanbul right up to Marseille, Lyon and Paris. It focuses on the long distances travelled by the migrants, the long waits at train stations, stand-offs with anti-riot police forces and encounters with host families, not forgetting German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to some migrants turning up in Germany.

As the conservative Les Republicains party unveils the modus operandi of its upcoming presidential primaries, Le Figaro closes in on the battle lines drawn by the contestants. Some like former premiers Alain Juppé and Francois Fillon took advantage of the summer vacation to test the waters with books about their projects for France.

But according to the journal, the party’s leader Nicolas Sarkozy has delayed his entry into the ring. Le Figaro believes the strategy would boost his presidential stature with more than a year to go before stakeholders vote in late November to pick the party’s flag bearer.

The right-wing newspaper publishes an IFOP survey handing Sarkozy a 39 to 36 per cent lead over Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppé, if the first-round ballot was held Saturday. Le Figaro says Sarkozy is surfing on his capacity to understand opinion.

Outsiders Bruno Lemaire and Francois Fillon are at 9 per cent respectively. But Jérome Fourquet, head of IFOP’s opinion department, says Sarkozy’s image problem could spring some surprises when the process finally shifts from voting intentions to the polling booth.

Libération says Sarkozy is relying on a nucleus of die-hard supporters to win the primaries in 2016.

The left-leaning newspaper denounces the degrading of a controversial sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor on display in the gardens of France's Palace of Versailles since June.

The masterpiece officially known as Dirty Corner popularly known as the Queen's Vagina was sprayed with graffiti for the third time this week. Libé reports that the 60-metre long, 10-metre high steel-and-rock abstract sculpture is perceived by fundamentalists as evil.

Phrases such as "Queen sacrificed, twice insulted" and "Respect Art as U trust God" were scrawled over the artwork in large letters with pink paint. Dirty Corner is one of several works by the British-Indian artist on exhibition in the gardens and inside one room of the palace until November.

Following the incidents, Kapoor said he wanted the graffiti to remain to bear witness to hatred. Libé says Kapoor’s work is not the first to raise anger in France. According to the paper, a massive sculpture by American artist Paul McCarthy shaped like a sex toy mounted at the Place Vendome in Paris was deflated by vandals in October 2014.

The paper warns that the trend could result in self censorship by artists and institutions if the Catholic fundamentalists are not found and prosecuted.

Le Monde also comments about the degrading of Kapoor’s works in Versailles. The journal claims that while the mayor of the city has strongly condemned the vandals, one of his councillors close to the anti-gay marriage protest is heading the campaign against the exhibition.

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