French press review 15 February 2012

There's an awful lot of Nicolas Sarkozy on this morning's front pages, as France awaits the official announcement that he will stand for reelection. But whoever wins the April/May poll has a tough job sorting out the economy.

The French president is expected to appear on the main television news this very evening, and is further expected to make the long-awaited announcement that he will, indeed, run for reelection in the up-coming presidential free-for-all.

According to the main headline in the popular tabloid, Aujourd'hui en France, "This time, it's for real".

The front page of left-leaning Libération has the out-going president "On the starting blocks".

Le Monde says Sarkozy will base his 67-day campaign on an appeal to "the people". The centrist daily goes on to point out that, whenever or however they choose to get into the race, outgoing presidents never profit in the opinion polls from the announcement.

Communist L'Humanité says the "president of the rich" has consistently accepted the line laid down by French bosses over the past five years and has already been given his road map for the next five.

Perhaps with a belated glance at St Valentine's Day, L'Huma says, the love story between Sarko and top management will last forever. Or at least for another 67 days.

Sarkozy had better come up with something dramatic tonight. The latest opinion polls put the right-wing candidate streets behind Socialist contender, François Hollande, with an eight-point gap between the two in the first round, rising to 16 points between them in the decider.

As business daily Les Echos makes very clear, all candidates are going to have their work cut out for them. The business paper's main headline reads "French employment figures collapse again".

According to official statistics, 32,000 jobs were lost in the final three months of last year, and the prospects for 2012 are far from inspiring. Management jobs continue a relative boom, except in small and medium businesses but the prospects for young, unqualified workers remain poor.

Right-wing Le Figaro gives front-page prominence to a left-wing row. According to the paper owned by the man who makes Rafale jet fighters, François Hollande has annoyed Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Frank recently said that there were no communists left in France. Mélenchon, who heads a group of far-left elements, including the French Communist Party, feels that this shows the insufferable arrogance of Hollande in his attitude to the rest of the left.

Opinion polls currently credit Mélenchon with eight per cent support in the first round.

"If he doesn't believe they exist," fulminates the far-left leader, "how will he get them to vote for him in the second round?"

Mélenchon wants Hollande to stand by his early promise to attack the twisted worlds of banking and finance, a promise which put the fear of God up some big international investors and has since been toned down by the Socialist front man.

"The left was in power for 15 years under Mitterrand," says Hollande, "and during that time we liberalised the economy, opened the way to investment and privatisation. There is nothing to fear."

Le Figaro also reports that there'll be no punishment for Socialist-alligned deputy Serge Letchimy, who recently evoked the concentration camps of Nazi Germany when criticising Interior Minister Claude Guéant's comments to the effect that not all civilisations are of equal value.

Letchimy's case was heard by a committee dominated by his Socalist colleagues, because there were too few majority representatives to attend all Tuesday's parliamentary committees.

While expressing the wish that parliamentary debate should always take place in an atmosphere of mutual repect, the committee said the decision not to punish Letchimy was proof that France remains a nation committed to freedom of expression and democratic principles.

Told about the decision, Claude Guéant said he had nothing to say.