French press review 2 May 2012

The papers are divided this morning between those who look back to yesterday's big political rallies and those looking forward to tonight's televised debate between the two survivors in the French presidential battle.

Communist L'Humanité and right-wing Le Figaro are the papers looking back. But they aren't seeing the same thing.

Le Figaro has outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy addressing 100,000 supporters in central Paris, calling on trade unionists to abandon the red flag of organised labour and join the rest of France in the grand advance behind the national flag.

Communist L'Humanité counters with a headline which could be translated as "How do you like them for apples?" Candidate Sarkozy had called for "real workers" to join him to celebrate 1 May, international labour solidarity day.

When that got the trade unions so angry they were planning a second attack on the Bastille, Sarkozy toned it down and explained that what he meant was "real work".

This morning's L'Huma claims a total of 750,000 participants in various trade union organised marches countrywide yesterday, and further claims that anti-Sarkozy banners were everywhere to be seen.

As for the red flag, the communist daily describes the president's comments as insulting, since he has clearly forgotten that the flag commemorates the blood of the American workers killed by police in May 1866 when they were protesting in support of demands for an eight-hour working day.

And so to the forward-looking papers.

"The duel" is the rather unimaginative headline in business daily Les Echos. The paper usefully does point out that neither candidate is very good at what they call "sums" where I come from.

Les Echos says the independent Montaigne Institute, a Paris-based political and economic commentator, has checked out the financial side of the duellists' propositions and nothing adds up.

According to the lads at Montaigne, the right-wing programme is under-financed to the tune of 15 billion euros. What they can see of Socialist propositions, which haven't paid much attention to paying the bills, still show a shortfall of 10 billion sponduliks. So we can expect the financial part of tonight's debate to be lively.

All papers make the point that the debate has been meticulously planned by both sides, with the risk that we will be treated to two carefully prepared monologues.

But, with the gap between the candidates continuing to narrow, the combative Sarkozy might be tempted to turn it into a street fight.

The outgoing president has made no secret of his central strategy, which will be to force François Hollande to explain the details of his policies, especially the crucial detail about who's going to pay for them.

Hollande's handlers say his technique will be to let Sarkozy rant and rave to the point of exhaustion. The outgoing president is a talker, "he talks quickly, about everything and all the time", according to a Socialist insider.

Aujourd'hui en France compares the strengths and weaknesses of the two men, crediting Hollande with a sense of humour and his status as favourite. Sarkozy is given the advantage for his hands-on grasp of the crucial questions and his obvious love of the TV limelight.

On the debit side, Hollande is an analyst who dislikes the immediacy of television. Sarkozy is tempted by aggression, and could lose the thread if he gets angry.

Interestingly, a Socialist team member is quoted in Libé as saying that Hollande will try to drive Sarkozy mad. The only danger is that the Socialist contender may put us all to sleep first.

Provisional results in tomorrow's press review. To know the real outcome, of course, we'll have to wait until eight o'clock on Sunday evening.