French press review 31 May 2017

Did a group of high-ranking Malian clergy conspire to hide Catholic Church funds from the tax collector? President Emmanuel Macron does well during his first week on the world diplomatic stage but will it make any real difference? And did the erotic blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey boost the birth rate in the United States?

Le Monde reports that a Malian Catholic cardinal, once the archbishop of Bamako, is implicated in the transfer of 12 million euros to Swiss bank accounts.

At the time the accounts were set up Monsignor Jean Zerbo, who is due to get his cardinal's red hat at an official ceremony in Rome at the end of June, was responsible for the accounts of the Malian Bishops' Conference.

The money was deposited at a rate of five percent and access to the accounts was equally divided between Cardinal Zerbo and two other Malian prelates.

In meetings with bank officials the three priests claimed to be acting with the agreement of the Malian Catholic community. Le Monde interviewed several members of that community in Bamako who said they had never been informed of the conference's investment plans.

The seven accounts are still active in Geneva, according to Le Monde, but no trace of the money they contain is to be found in the accounts of the Malian Bishops' Conference.

The Paris paper also reports that the Malian tax authorities have never been informed of the existence of any Swiss account held by the Catholic clergy.

The boy done good but will it do any good?

The editorial in Le Monde looks back on President Emmanuel Macron's first week on the world diplomatic stage, seven days which began with a spot of arm wrestling with Donald Trump at Nato, continued at the G7 summit in Sicily and ended with a long conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Le Monde says the boy done good. But they wonder if all Macron's straight talking on Syria and Ukraine is going to have any real impact on the ground in those two areas where Russian and European ambitions are diametrically opposed.

Macron made all the right noises but was Putin listening?

And the paper goes on to ask what place remains for battered, post-Brexit Europe on a global stage dominated by powerful blocs governed by nationalists?

Putin tells Europe that the Cold War is over

Right-wing paper Le Figaro gives the front-page honours to Vladimir Putin himself, with the Kremlin strongman assuring French readers that they should stop scaring themselves by waving the outdated Russian scarecrow.

The Cold War is over, says Putin. The enemy has changed. The only way to guarantee global security is through cooperation against Islamist terrorism. Vladimir says he's ready to talk to anyone but that the dialogue has to be about concrete problems and not imaginary difficulties.

As for Western suspicions of Russian cyberinterference in the US and French elections, Putin is dismissive.

The claims are baseless, he says. And stupid. Because there was no advantage to be gained for Russia. American presidents change, says the Russian leader, but American policy remains the same. And that's because of the power of the US bureaucracy, the anonymous men in suits who tell the president, whoever he is, how he will behave.

"It's not an easy situation to change," says Putin, adding "and I say that without irony."

Erotic blockbuster fails to boost US birthrate

Le Monde's science pages look at the link between the million-selling erotic trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey and the birth rate in the United States.

The question is a simple one: did the readers who devoured the sexy series on publication in 2011 and 2012 also increase the frequency of their own sexual activity, resulting in a baby boom?

The answer appears to be no. The researchers compared birth rates across the US for eight years, hoping to find peaks about nine months after the publication of each of the three books. They found nothing of the sort.

To be sure, they cross-checked with something called the sex ratio. Population analysts have noticed that, in periods of intense sexual activity, as, for example, when troops return from war, more male babies are born. Once again, Fifty Shades turns out to be a flop. The US sex ratio has remained resolutely stable, despite all that raunchy reading.

Perhaps that's the problem. Too much reading!