French press review 18 December 2012

Plenty of variety, but not a lot of good news on this morning's French front pages. There's Japan, Depardieu (encore), pensions and dying with dignity;

Le Monde leads with analysis of the Japanese election last weekend, which saw the right wing make huge gains on the back of a hardline attitude to China.

Nothing less than the strategic stability of the whole of the eastern Pacific is now under threat, the paper believes. Given that North Korea and Taiwan are already well chewed bones of contention, a decrease in regional stability is not a good thing. And, of course, apart from the military implications, the world economy badly needs to get the Asian engine turning over smoothly again.

Le Figaro can't get off the trail of the tax exiles. The right-wing paper publishes an interview with Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders, who says France has to accept the consequences of a tax policy which drives rich people into exile. And, in a sorry imitation of several cross-channel political figures like Boris Johnson and David Cameron, Didier the Red-Nosed Reynders says Belgium will welcome wealthy French refugees with open arms. Currently, some 500 French nationals are awaiting reclassification as Belgians.

Many commentators say the only answer is to harmonise European tax laws, which sounds like a few days work, given how badly harmonised European money is doing. And that will simply drive the former French, now Belgian escapees to north Africa or even further afield.

According to business daily Les Echos, the problem of financing retirement is, once again, becoming urgent.

Last year the gap between what current workers paid into the pension system and what retired workers took out was already 14 billion euros. As things stand, that will rise to 20 billion over the next five years. All this as the government meets in an effort to find new ways of saving money and cutting expenditure.

Catholic La Croix gives pride of place to a report on ways of reaching the end of life with dignity, a document to be handed over to the government later today.

La Croix has already seen the report and considers it detailed and serious. The Catholic daily says it paints an unpretty picture of coming to the end of your days in France. But the document is also very careful about recommending any policy of active interference to speed up the process of dying. Assisted suicide might, it is suggested, be considered in certain cases of incurable illness. But all of that remains very much in the future, and is still wide open to discussion.