French weekly magazines review 14 June 2015

This week's magazines look at the status of women in Egypt, contradictions in the French Socialist government's position on illegal immigration and a Swedish solution to the problem of mass unemployment. Then there's Fifa, suspicions about the 2022 World Cup and the end of politics.

DR

Le Monde Magazine devotes an article to Egyptian journalist Chérif Choubachy, who created a bit of a stir last month when he called on his countrywomen to take off their veils and headscarves.

Le Monde reckons that 90 per cent of Egyptian women follow the Muslim dress code. Choubachy feels sure that seven of every 10 of them hate wearing the head covering and are waiting only for a hint of encouragement to put an end to a practice which Choubachy describes as a sign of Egypt's "moral decadence and hypocrisy".

That, as you can imagine, brought the worms out of their holes! Choubachy has been accused of insulting Egypt, of suggesting that 90 per cent of his countrywomen are prostitutes, of inciting public disorder, of dishonour to Islam. People have lost their heads for less.

The Cairo-based journalist has also received many messages of gratitude from women who want to escape the social pressure represented by the veil. They communicate by social media, as did their brothers during the 2011 revolution.

Says Le Monde, at least that movement of revolt has led to a slight rethinking of the position of women in Egyptian society. But there's a long way to go, to real democracy and to an Egypt where women themselves, rather than Chérif Choubachy or the religious authorities, will decide how women dress.

Over at Le Figaro Magazine, the editorial is devoted to what the writer calls the "false logic" of the Socialist position on illegal immigration. If solidarity and a welcome to those in difficulties are obligations for each individual, we are told, they are far from obligatory for the state. The government's prime obligation is to ensure the peace and safety of its citizens. It is clear, the article continues, that the European Union is being destabilised by repeated invasions. And how long, the right-wing magazine wonders, before terrorists decide to cross the Mediterranean disguised as refugees?

The answer to this crisis is to be found in Australia where, Le Figaro Magazine assures us, the authorities systematically send back everyone arriving illegally. No visa, no entry. No debate. Humanitarian organisations and the United Nations have been critical of Canberra's refusal to grant refugee status to any arrivals, whatever their condition or country of origin. Fiddlesticks, says Figaro, it is time for France to show a capacity for the same kind of realpolitik.

A short article in Le Figaro Magazine says that, in its judgement in the case of Vincent Lambert, the European Court of Human Rights has gone too far. Lambert, you'll remember, is the man who has been kept "alive" artificially since a road accident, despite being considered "brain-dead" by his doctors. The court last week decided, with 12 judges in favour and five against, that there was no obligation to continue the treatment that keeps Lambert technically alive.

Le Figaro says the court "has taken a step backwards" and has "lost the right [. . .] to consider itself as the conscience of Europe". Those harsh judgements are presented as quotations, with the authority that implies, but Le Figaro doesn't tell us who is being quoted. Strange. Not to say "extremely unprofessional".

L'Express looks at the Swedish solution to unemployment.

According to Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven, his country started investing massively in training schemes in 1994. The emphasis was on technical skills and on giving drop-outs from the school system a second chance. Some 800,000 people took advantage of the scheme and were thus ready to snap up the jobs in the new technology sector at the turn of the century. Sweden has a population of just 9.5 million, which makes things a bit easier, compared to France's 56 million.

The cover story in Le Nouvel Observateur attempts to explain why Muslims of the Sunni and Shia persuasions dislike one another with such cordial determination.

If the roots of the division go back to the death of the prophet in 632 and the fact that he left no male heir so that there was a fairly muscular series of struggles for control of the Muslim world, the real violence is a recent phenomenon.

The essential problem seems to date from the colonial era, when the thoughtless Great Powers divided up the Middle East to suit their own strategic interests, completely ignoring the underlying structure of communities of belief.

Says Le Nouvel Observateur, the current and recent wars in the region are largely to be explained by attempts by those communities to claim appropriate living space from their often hostile neighbours. And local regimes on the verge of collapse have seen the value of playing the religious card in the struggle to maintain their grip on power. Against that background, the efforts by the Islamic State armed group to redraw the regional map seem a lot less like madness.

The weekly magazine Marianne wonders why political parties are on the verge of extinction here in France.

The recent congresses of the Socialist Party and the once-UMP showed identical symptoms: fewer participants, less debate about ideas, everything reduced to the level of personality. Politics as show business, in other words, but fewer and fewer people want to see the show.

The political vacuum is being filled by pressure groups, lobbyists and thinktanks, people who provide the fuel for a political machine which appears to have exhausted its own stocks. But these people and organisations have no popular mandate to support their huge influence. Ordinary voters are becoming ever less enchanted, because they feel ever more distant from the real centres of power.

It would all be simply ironic if it wasn't so serious, says Marianne. Nothing less than the future of democracy is at risk.

Marianne also wonders if Qatar bought the 2022 World Cup football finals.

It doesn't actually know any more than the rest of us, but clearly hope that the current investigations into vote-rigging and other malpractices at the world football body Fifa will come up with clear evidence.

Qatar doesn't have much of a footballing tradition, but it does have tons of cash.

That's suspicious.

The problem is that a lot of key French political figures have lucrative links with Qatar. President François Hollande recently conferred the Légion d'Honneur on a former Qatari ambassador; Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has been praising the Qatari owners of Paris St Germain football club for their positive attitude to racism. There will be a lot of French red faces if it turns out the Qataris cheated to get the World Cup.

Le Figaro Magazine tells us the French president and Prime Minister Manuel Valls were the public figures most frequently mentioned in the nation's media in the first week of this month.

Hollande is the outright winner, with 1,939 appearances. Valls comes next with 1,503. And then there's a chap called Sarkozy, Nicolas, with 1,294. Just wait till the figures come in for those likely lads, Sepp Blatter and Dominque Strauss-Kahn.