French press review 16 March 2015

Today’s French newspapers focus on the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Israel and Great Britain as well as the departmental elections in France.

Elections, of one sort or another, dominate this morning's front pages.

Le Monde looks to Israel, where the conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will tomorrow attempt to win a fourth term. The Paris daily suggests that Netanyahu is at the end of his political tether, seriously challenged by left wing candidates in a campaign which has focused on social issues and housing.

Le Monde suggests that Israel could, for the first time since 2001, find itself under a labour government. The problem, of course, is that, once the dust settles after tomorrow's polls, there will be no outright winner . . . the next government of the Jewish state will almost certainly be a coalition.

But Le Monde thinks there is a ground-swell of public determination in favour of change, and that the centrist-left wing tandem lead by the Labour Party is best placed to profit from voters' annoyance at high prices and diminishing purchasing power.

Bizarrely, the Palestinian question has been almost entirely absent from the campaign, partly because the security situation is, for the moment at least, relatively stable, and partly because no Jewish political figure has been able to name a Palestinian counterpart with the political clout to deliver any reasonable compromise.

Neither have voters expressed too much concern about Iranian nuclear ambitions, a key plank in Netanyahu's election platform. Says Le Monde, there's no debate about the relative importance of potential nuclear attack and current prices in Israeli supermarkets.

Conservative daily Le Figaro gives pride of place to next weekend's departmental elections here in France.

According to an opinion poll commissioned by the rightwing paper, the first round is going to be a washout for the ruling socialists, with the extreme right National Front leading the mainstream conservative UMP in terms of voting intentions.

Thirty per cent of those questioned by Le Figaro intend to vote for the anti-European extremists, followed by 29 per cent who support Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP. Just 19 per cent say they intend to vote for a socialist candidate.

There'll be a general election across the Channel in May. Le Monde looks at the campaign promises of one Al Murray, who will stand against the leader of the nationalist United Kingdom Independence Party, Nigel Farage.

Murray is a comedian, and is not given any chance of taking a seat. But his campaign, “common sense policies for common sense people,” is certainly causing laughter and credibility problems for his far right opponent.

Murray is, for example, against the Channel Tunnel, which links Europe to the mainland, and suggests that it should be plugged using British bricks and Polish labour. Farage will tell anyone who'll listen that Polish workers are what’s wrong with the British economy.

Al Murray doesn't just want Britain out of the European Union, he's going to take the country out of the solar system by 2050.

His foreign policy is based on provoking Germany, which Murray feels has been deceptively quiet for far too long. And, to solve the security and employment problems in one Solomonic gesture, he's going to put all those without jobs behind bars. Nothing, but common sense.

Al Murray describes himself as "a true Brit", saying he never cries and he never weighs himself. A man with values.

There's an election message on the front page of communist L'Humanité, for the French departmental battle, not the UK general election.

Pierre Laurent, the national secretary of the French Communist Party, wants voters to send a clear anti-austerity message to the government.

He says the elections, which most polls suggest will be marred by massive disinterest, are very important, since the departments are the crucial link in the chain between central government and local organisations. Spending cuts emphasise the need for strong, independent representatives, prepared to fight for local issues and initiatives.

And then there's Patrick Balkany, right wing mayor of the Paris suburb of Levallois, accused by left-leaning Libération of forgetting to declare certain elements of his personal fortune to the tax authorities.

Balkany this week risks losing his parliamentary immunity, a state of affairs which would see him obliged to remain in France until at least the completion of various legal cases in which he is suspected of financial misdeeds.