French press review 14 April 2012

France is eight days away from the first round of the presidential election and the papers are looking ahead to a series of giant campaign rallies scheduled this weekend in Paris, by three prominent candidates: incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist front-runner François Hollande and Left Front champion Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"Concorde meeting, Sarkozy’s grand offensive" headlines Le Figaro. The conservative daily says the President will be dying to address the so-called 'silent majority' when he takes to the rostrum at the strategic Place de la Concorde down the Champs-Elysées Sunday afternoon.

The great duel fought over taxes by François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy is the front page story in today’s Libération. The left-leaning newspaper puts out a cartoon depicting Hollande as Robin Hood and Sarkozy as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Le Monde claims Sarkozy’s team is divided over their end-of-campaign strategy as his poll figures continue to shrink. The paper says the president-candidate is hesitating about whether or not he should centralize his campaign message.

The websites of several French papers take up the debate about the security of the electoral process. There are an estimated 23 millions people owning Facebook accounts in France with another three million web users on Twitter.

Laurent Gloaguen of embruns.net describes the electoral law setting the 8pm embargo on the release of electoral results as "obsolete, porous and ridiculous in our time".

Social media expert Erwann Gaucher says fake Twitter account owners can move into any cyber-café and tweet as they please without being traced.

The blogger explains that the savage revelation of poll news could influence the decision of last-minute voters and the outcome of the election as well.

While the release of early election trends is illegal in France, some bloggers say news outlets in neighbouring countries cannot be prevented from acting as they please. The situation is reportedly embarrassing officials at the national electoral campaign control commission.

La Croix takes a walk down the corridors of the European Parliament from Strasbourg to Brussels. Reporters from the Catholic daily reached the experts serving behind the scenes to keep the giant machinery working.

Aujourd’hui en France/Le Parisien exposes a new booming business in France, gold smuggling into neighbouring countries like Belgium. The trade has become a lifeline for tax evaders, according to the popular Parisian newspaper.

“Gold” is also the cover story of L’Equipe, as football giants Lyon and Marseille clash in the French League Cup at the Stade de France here in Paris this Saturday. It is a trophy that’s worth gold, says the sports journal.

According to L’Equipe, Lyon is hunting for their first title in four years, while cup holders Marseille must salvage their disastrous season by grabbing a place in the Europa League.