French press review 15 February 2018

Jacob Zuma steps down after losing a fierce political battle with his party.

We begin with reactions to South African President Jacob Zuma's resignation. Le Figaro reports on its front page that the very controversial former anti-apartheid militant weakened by a string of scandals was ordered to step down with immediate effect by the ruling ANC party.

According to Le Parisien, Zuma's announcement of his resignation in a televised address Wednesday night was the  epilogue of the political crisis which had been rocking the country for several weeks.

The paper reports that he will be replaced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as early as this Friday when Parliament convenes in a special session -  the clearest signal that the ruling ANC party is determined to turn the Zuma page very quickly.

Le Parisien says that former head of the ANC's armed wing imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela at Robben Island, was swept to power by a clamour by leftists for change in favour of the country's poor.

But as the paper explains he leaves the stage amid a blizzard of boos for having spent more than half a million euros to renovate his private residence in his village. After ten years in power it argues, Zuma's promises for radical change were nothing more than empty rhetoric.

Zuma and a large appetite for scandals in the title of a lengthy article in today's La Croix , the catholic daily looking back at the rise and fall of the Zulu warrior who joined the ANC at the age of 17, learned how to read and write at Robben Island prison while serving a 10 -year prison sentence for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle, before becoming the commander of the ANC's armed wing and then leader of his country.

L'Humanité says the old warior who never practiced boxing like Nelson Mandela finally accepted to throw in the towel and gang up his gloves, after trading punches, hooks and uppercuts with his party's leadership.

La Croix joins the raging debate here in France about failed international efforts to resolve the Syrian war as Israel launched air raids in the country to destroy what it called Iranian bases.

The Catholic daily says that Russia is playing a negative role in the conflict since it broke out seven years ago. Moscow and Teheran are busy propping up the Basher al Assad region from the paper's point of view and should be forced by the international community to open negotiations with Damascus region so as to bring down tensions.

"It’s not over yet", shouts the sports daily l'Equipe after Real Madrid came from behind to beat Paris Saint German 3-1 in a last 16 first leg Champions League showdown at the Bernabeu on Wednesday. PSG can still dream of qualification provided they play the perfect game in the second leg scheduled at the Parc des Princes on March 6.

PSG will have its own “remontada” crows a defiant Le Parisien, confident that the French giants have enough talent to win the return leg by a better goal aggregate.

Le Journal de la Haute-Marne claims that the stakes of the mouthwatering showdown between title holders Madrid and the star-studded PSG is not just about qualification for the quarter finals of the prestigious competition but more importantly about the financial windfall which is up for grabs.

The paper says that the Qatar-sponsored Parisian outfit badly needs the millions of euros earned by clubs which reach the penultimate stages of the competition so as to avoid infringing on UEFA's financial fair play rules.