French press review 27 October 2012

French politics and the Socialist party Congress are underway in Toulouse, plus the raging debate about the competitiveness of the economy are attracting the most comments in today's morning papers.

“François Hollande drops the idea of competitive shock". That’s the headline in today’s Le Monde. The paper notes that the Elysée has opted for a cautious approach in treating the risky file, with the head of State preferring to take his time to negotiate a pact embraced by all economic stakeholders.

Today’s Le Figaro is all about "the low spirits of the French Socialist party", barely five months after President François Hollande’s election. According to the conservative newspaper, despite holding an absolute majority in all arms of power, the Socialists go into their Congress in Toulouse this weekend in a grim mood.

Le Figaro goes on to explain that their state of mind can’t be a surprise considering the misdirected efforts by the government over economic and social policy, increasing unemployment and a spectacular loss of faith in the President’s ability to lead the nation out of recession.

Libération takes up the cause by French newspaper publishers for a sort of Google tax to rescue local online newspapers deprived of advertising revenue by the giants of the Internet.

The left-leaning paperquestion comes as Google held on to a mechanism it released in March that enables it to track users across various services and to develop targeted advertising. Google already controls 70 percent of the Internet search market - and the advertising that goes with it. The French government has promised to pass a law obliging Google to cede part of its huge revenue earned from user-searches for news with media websites.

But Libération goes on to explain how Google threatened to exclude French media sites from its search results should France adopt a law forcing the search engines to pay for content.

Aujourd’hui en France salutes the spectacular achievements of the 2 year-old Public agency charged with the recovery and management of seized property. Known by its acronym Agrasc, the anti-graft agency headed by a woman seized a jack pot worth 812 million euros from tax defaulters, crooks, drug barons and gangsters, of which the state is investigating. The booty includes yachts, luxury homes, cars and jewels including a 100 kilogrammes gold bar found in the home of a conman in French Guyana.

Aujourd’hui en France also recalls the seizure last year of a 4 million euro luxury boat belonging to Ziad Takieddine over his role in the so-called Karachi affairs. The paper found out that there are at least 20 new cases of confiscation orders being executed every day. It is "a manner from heaven" says the Parisian newspaper, especially during these hard times.