French press review 21 January 2016

This morning French press review has it all: political drama in France, GPs refusing to move to small towns, a state of emergency and a heartwarming story about refugees and volunteers in Greece.

DR

Le Figaro is headlining on a possible cabinet reshuffle this morning. The right-wing newspaper seems to think that President François Hollande is preparing a cabinet reshuffle soon.

Foreign Affairs minsiter Laurent Fabius is tipped to take the head of the Consitutional Council and Housing Minister Sylvia Pinel chose to resign to take up her position as the head of the Midi Pyréennées region. But if a reshuffle is a necessity, it doesn't mean Hollande won't be using it to its advantage, writes Le Figaro.

"Hollande will use it to prepare the 2017 presidential elections" says an article.

No one knows for sure who will be appointed, but it seems that Hollande might favor new faces.There's one sure thing though, the Greens won't be back.It's also going to be difficult for Hollande to get big Socialists figures like Martine Aubry on board.

"Once again, this will be a reshuffle that will be more talked about before its annoucement than after" says the paper.

Elsewhere, Libération focuses on Hollande and the fact that he may mextend France's state of emergency for three more months.

"Hollande can change his mind, even if we almost forget it, given his determinition to enshrine nationality stripping in the Consistution" says Libé.

Earlier this month, the Socialist president swore the state of emergency would end at the end of February. But sources indicates it might go on for longer, a measure that will likely be criticised by part of the left and activists.

The state of emergency gives police increased powers, the result of which is an explosion in the number of raids without a warrant since last november attacks.

"When the next attacks comes, Hollande wants to be able to say everything was done to protect the French" says a source close to the President.

It's not even a matter of if, but when, Libé adds.

For La Croix the focus this morning is the lack of doctors in cities. It is a surprising news, until now the common consensus is that there is a lack of GPs in the countryside, not cities.

Of course, La Croix is not talking about big cities like Paris or Marseille, but about averaged-sized towns.

Usuallywhat happens, La Croix says, is that two or three doctors decide to retire, and no one can be found anyone to replace them. Such is the case in Valence, where 45000 people are left without a GP.

"We were tyring get young doctors to go practice in rural zone," says a doctor. "It worked pretty well, but we forgot that the same thing what happening in cities."

Now, in some areas, people even go to the contryside to get treated. That's the world turned upside down, concludes La Croix.

L'Humanité has a story on volunteers helping refugees in Greece.It's quite a heartwarming story.

For its part, L'Huma decided to spend time with volunteers who moved to the Greek island of Lesbos, where hundreds of refugees land every day.

There's an Argantinian who asks for donation from friends back home, a Malay who decided to spend his entire saving to come to Lesbos for three months or Michael, a South African doctor who installed his practice in a libraby.

The article describes women and men of various nationality "helping migrants out of their boats, welcoming them and giving them warm blankets".

There's also Phanos, a greek fisherman who says everytime he helps refugees, he lose a day worth of work. He does it anyway because of his family's history: they had to flee Turkey in 1922 and cross the Aegean sea.

Exactly what refugees are doing now.