French press review 23 January 2012

There's a lot of François Hollande on this morning's front pages. That's because the Socialist candidate in the French presidential race yesterday got down to serious business, with a rally in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget. 

A number of people showed up. Ten thousand according to right-wing Le Figaro, 25,000 according to the Socialist Party. This was not the official presentation of the Hollande programme for the presidency . . . that's scheduled for next Thursday, 26 January. Yesterday was billed as the personal presentation of a political identity.

Whatever it was, the folk at Le Figaro are quaking in their Armani boots.

He's going to wipe out tax havens currently concealing 30 billion euros; he's going to hit people who earn more than 150,000 euros with a new 45 per cent tax rate; he's going to allow foreigners to vote in local elections; he's going to un-freeze the recruitment ban in the public service and he'll take on 60,000 new teachers.

It's worse than Mitterrand, says the Le Figaro front-page editorial, waving the spectre of the last French Socialist president.

And the world is now a tougher place. There was no mention of how France can rise to the challenges posed by globalisation and haul itself back up into the international top rank. Nothing on the future of the 35-hour week. Nothing on public spending. Nothing on immigration policy.

Of course not, says Le Figaro, because Hollande doesn't want to frighten his own troops and further fragment an already deeply-divided Left.

The communists at L'Humanité were not too impressed either, seeing Hollande lost in a dead end. It's all very well, says the communist daily's editorial, to talk about change but we'd like to know what and how and who's going to pay for it.

There are 13 weeks left before the first round, and Comrade Frank needs to shake off the mantle of the anti-Sarkozy candidate and begin to plough a personal political furrow.

Elsewhere, Catholic La Croix looks to Afghanistan where four more French soldiers died last week. France is now considering a more rapid application of the policy of withdrawal, an acceleration which, fears La Croix, may result in a stampede by other European governments, already facing public anger for their engagement in a war which no-one any longer understands and which no-one will ever win.

The latest anti-French attack betrays, according to La Croix, a crisis of confidence and a complete cultural incompatibility between the Afghans and their foreign "protectors".

Popular Aujourd'hui en France looks at a parliamentary debate likely to explode later this week when the right-wing majority will try to establish a sort of minimum service in the air transport sector.

The idea is to force pilots, baggage handlers and security personnel to give 48 hours notice of their intention to strike, thus allowing them to be replaced. The idea is to save travellers from being held hostage, notably at peak holiday periods.

The trouble is that the government bill currently talks about a guaranteed level of service in the air sector, and that worries the trades unions. We'll doubtless be hearing more.

Business daily Les Echos looks at efforts by the Finance Ministry to fight tax fraud. Basically, hiding your loot overseas is going to cost you a lot more, if you're caught.