French weekly magazines review 23 July 2017

Questions about President Macron's defence doctrine as a budget conflict with the army chief spoils his first Bastille Day. More evidence of cash flows between French cement giant Lefarge and ISIS in Syria. And a happy ending for "baby Chris" born in the high seas in the latest migrants' saga.

DR

When the history of President Macron's time at the Elysée Palace will be written, a chapter will be consecrated on his first celebration of Bastille Day.

The French national day was marked by an "awkward" ride in his command car down the Champs Elysée Avenue, by Macron accompanied by an army chief of staff he was to sack a few days later over a public dispute on cuts in the military budget.

That's the view upheld by left-leaning Marianne. In this week's issue, the magazine digs into what it calls a "regime crisis" opting for a telling cover page headline. "Macron and the army: war".

The weekly runs an excerpt from General François de Villiers' statement on the budget cut dispute, behind the fallout with President Macron, after he announced the slashing of 850 million euros from the 2017 defence budget.

According to the left-leaning magazine, by forcing the respected army chief to step down, President Macron not just humiliated one of his subordinates in front of his troops, but errred by causing a breakdown of trust between the commander in chief and the armed forces.

Furthermore, Marianne says his conduct turned out to be counterproductive and the General remained defiant reiterating that "he didn't consider himself in a position to ensure the sustainability of the model of the military which he believe in to guarantee the protection of France and the French people.

Notwithstanding President Macron's pledge to undertake a graduated increase of the military budget to 34, 2 billion next year and then to 2 percent of France's GDP in 2025, l'Express doesn't believe he has a doctrine.

According to the right-wing weekly it is not his sincerity which is in doubt but the size and depth of his defence policy.

Le Canard Enchaîné scorns his so-called naive policy of making friends with everyone, from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the unpredictable US President Donald Trump, to Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu to Russian leader Vladmir Putin.

According to the satirical weekly, it is wishful thinking to imagine that Putin will return annexed Crimea back to Ukraine, that China's Xi Jinping will provide liberty to dissidents, or that Basher al Assad will give peace to Syrians simply because of the so-called charm operation or sentimental state of grace" of the French President.

And talking about Syria, l'Express claims to have overwhelming evidence of French cement giant Lafarge's assistance to the Islamic State Armed Group to sustain its flow of funds.

The magazine reports from local staff on the ground  who confirmed that the cement giant was used to paying for the safe passage of its employees to keep its supplies flowing from its multimillion-euro factory in Jalabiyeh near the Turkish border.

According to the magazine, claims that it would never have been possible for ISIS take over the running of the factory in 2014, without someone at managerial level handing them the access codes to the operation room and those needed to activate the cement silos.

Pictures speak volumes, they say, but there is one in this week's New Observer, l’Obs, that speaks volumes. It's about a birth in the high seas, taken on a humanitarian ship the Aquarius on Tuesday July 11, at 6 am.

That was as medics from Doctors without Borders helped an African woman still clad in a live jacket deliver her baby, with migrants rescued from a wooden canoe in the Mediterranean looking on.

The magazine says that the doctors were surprised to notice that tiny baby boy, wrapped in a red piece of cloth, was still linked to his mother by umbilical cord as they tried to examine him.

L'Obs says all is well that ends well for baby Chris and his mother Constance who are now both doing well at their new home at an Italian monastery.