French press review 5 February 2016

The French press talks about identity this morning. In La Croix's case it's about France, and in Libération it's about the Front National. Meanwhile, Le Figaro criticises Hollande over its failure to reduce France's public deficit, and Le Monde reports on credit cards.

DR

Le Figaro's economic pages are focusing on François Hollande and one of his campaign promises. According to an article of the paper, the European Union is doubting President Hollande will manage to bring France's public deficit under 3 percent of the GDP next year.

The French government's forecast expect the deficit to be at 2.7 percent in 2017, while the EU's forecast expects it to be at 3.2 percent.

This makes Le Figaro want to look at Hollande's track record when it comes to public finances - and when you look at the numbers, it isn't glorious. When he took power in 2012, the Socialist president expect the deficit to be of 3 percent in 2013 and of 0 percent next year.

There's one relative good news. France's economic growth is expected to be of 1.5 percent this year, higher by 0.1 point than the EU average forecasted growth.

Catholic daily La Croix devotes its front page to the French national identity. And if you feel like we're talking about this subject every week, you're right. The newspaper says it itself: "France has never stopped interrogating what makes its identity" it writes.

So why are we talking about this topic so much? La Croix has a few answers to that question.

Firstly, there's the fact that France never finished analysing its own history, especially when it comes to colonialism. "The war in Algeria never ended" says a historian to the paper.

France also has a nostalgia problem with its own past says the daily, which takes as an example the fact that politicans keep refering to the country's "great history" in their speeches.

Two other final problems here according to La Croix, "the idea of nation" is weakened by Europe, and "integration" isn't properly working anymore.

Left-wing Libération is also talking about and "identity crisis" this morning, but this one is not taking place in France but inside far-right party Le Front National.

One hundred and fifty high-ranked members of the party will meet tonight to talk about the future of the FN after "the failure of the regional elections" says Libé. "Without a big change in the time between now and 2017, no one believes that current leader Marine Le Pen will become President" told one MP to the paper.

The party will probably revise its economic policy in order to appeal to more voters, explains the daily. It might, for example, drop its proposal to go back to the Franc.

Some are even arguing in favour of a change of name, because its current name is deemed "too far right".

Finally, Le Monde takes a look at credit cards. The paper says French people are moving away from cash and bank notes and using more and more their credit cards. According to official statistics, only one transaction out of two was paid with cash in 2015, while the number of "electronic transactions rose by 5 to 6% every year since 2000".

Le Monde spoke to a few people and most of them seems to be happy to pay for most things with their cards. "I don't even have a wallet anymore," says a 25 year-old.

But the issue, says to to daily, is that you still can't pay by card in a lot of places, like your local boulangerie or cornershop. According to the paper, the banks and their high commissions are to blame for this.

But the government has announced new measures, that will see the price of those commissions reduced. And it makes sense, says Le Monde, because cash transactions are much harder to trace, especially when it comes to money laundering.

Cash won't disappear anytime soon though: it's still the best way to play heads or tails, concludes the article.