French press review 27 September 2017

French press asks if President Macron can deliver the agenda of big dreams for Europe he unveiled in a major policy speech on Tuesday.

The papers are all about Macron the European as they undertake a critical review of his 5-point plan unveiled at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Tuesday to boost the European Union.

The measures range from the setting up of new bodies to lessen bureaucracy, the creation of an armed "rapid response force" to defend the EU as well as a shared defence budget and common military strategy, a major tax plan regulating financial transactions to pay for overseas aid.

He also proposed a carbon tax on highly-polluting products entering Europe, as well as new levies on technology giants like Facebook and Apple, based on how much value they create in a country rather than the profits they make.

Macron’s big bet on making European Union attractive to youngsters includes an offer, to set up new European university networks facilitating bilingual programs, the learning of European languages and culture, as well as studies abroad.

Some of the commentators are marveled by the French leader's plans to cultivate more democracy in the EU, through so-called "democratic conventions" organized across Europe within the next six months, to spark national and local debates around what citizens want from the EU.

Le Figaro for example showers praise on Macron for the so-called audacious plan capable of reviving European pride, which it says has been banished from political discourse for more than a quarter of a century.

According to the paper, the offer is all the more commendable, because Europe up till now represented nothing more than feelings of shame characterized by "Euroscepticism and Europhilia".

Macron was absolutely right to denounce the turn that European construction without the opinion of its people had taken says Le Figaro. The paper says that from Jacques Chirac to Francois Hollande, successive French Presidents excelled  in rhetoric that lacked clarity and the ambition towards reconciling the European ambition and the defence of vital national interests.

Les Echos says it is gratifying to watch the huge strides taken by President Macron who only a year ago was still a young and inexperienced minister, struggling without a party to launch a campaign to revolutionize French politics.

According to the paper, the democratic approach he proposes to promote a people-driven Europe is inspired by the "great march" organized at the launch of his Presidential campaign.

Still, les Echos doubts his ability to deliver, at the European front what he has so achieved on the home front: in inspiring hope, removing resistances to change, reconciling citizens and political elite, ending gridlock in government and making Europe more likeable to the French people.

Libération also commends what it describes as the President's exercise of a bit of common sense and audacity for Europe. If there isn't a rapid relaunch of the EU, it warns, the Union could collapse under the blows inflicted by populist nationalism.

According to Libé, without a project worthy of a name, citizens have been turning away from Europe as the days go, which is why from its opinion, Macron is 100 percent right, to show the way forward, at a time, European governments walk blindly in daily marches.

Liberation holds that Macron's proposal for a common European defence policy, to deal with the immigration and terrorism emergencies and his blueprint for a Europe that protects its citizens remains the sole option for the bamboozled sub-continent.

L'Humanité criticizes the large security operation mounted around the Sorbonne amphitheater where President Macron’s vision for Europe was presented.

The communist daily slams the heavily-manned check points that kept at bay, hundreds of anti-Macron youths protesting their deplorable schooling conditions, (where some reportedly study on the floor without lecturers), as a shocking reflection of the old habits which still hold sway under his rule.

L'Huma holds that the situation is all the more outrageous because inside the hall Macron has around him a few students selected to appear on the photograph.