French Press Review 21 December 2017

Like the sun on the skull of Don Quixote, nationalism drives us crazy. That, in a nutshell, is the subject of today's top stories in the French newspapers.

A very mixed bag on today's front pages - probably because the bare-knuckle scraps that often characterise French politics have given way to a period of calm under a new President who doesn't talk the hind legs off a donkey - speaking only when he really has something to say - and the fact that his party enjoys an unassailable majority in the National Assembly.

So what's on offer this morning?

Left-leaning Libération gives its front page to today's election in Catalonia - with the headline "It's go again."

Libé editorial is headlined dramatically - "the Battle of Spain." Probably warranted given the extraordinary events of recent month : Catalan politicians unilateral declaration of independence from Spain; Madrid's sacking of the regional government; and the imprisonment and prosecution of some of its leaders.

It is worth quoting at some length.

"The obsession with identity that undermines Europe has found a new illustration in Catalonia. Rational argument has disappeared from public discourse, (which is) now woven with insults. The "Spanishists" consider separatists dangerous outlaws who deserve only prison.

They, in turn - see in their adversaries as fascists pure and simple.

Like the sun on the skull of Don Quixote, nationalism drives us crazy: thus those inhabitants of Catalonia who lived peacefully together for decades now have a language of civil war.

They fear the consequences of the vote, whatever the result.

Some defied the law to develop their separatist project; others used it with brutal rigour to repress the separatists.

By turning them into martyrs, they gave them their best argument."

Which seems to anticipate a victory for Catalan separatists. We shall know soon enough.

*****

Centrist paper le Monde has pages of analysis on the same subject under the headline "The end of a deleterious campaign in Catalonia."

I looked up "deleterious". I knew it was something undesirable but wanted precision.

Evidently, it mean "harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way" or, if you prefer, "injurious to health."

Which doesn't promise a happy outcome whatever the result of today's vote.

*******

Communist daily l'Humanité is slightly more upbeat hoping that "the ballot box will encourage dialogue."

*******

Oddly enough, the Catholic daily La Croix give scant coverage to today's Catalan vote.

Odd, because Spain is a next door neighbour and very much a Catholic country.

To be fair, the paper does report from Brussels on the sacked Catalan regional President in exile Carles Puigdemont who has been staying in touch with supporters via video-conferences seeking to keep alive their enthusiasm for independence.

Whatever the outcome of today's election, says la Croix, Puigdemont's future remains uncertain. When all is said and done, he fled to Brussels to avoid arrest and prosecution by the Spanish authorities.

The paper is more concerned about events in rabidly Catholic Poland. The headline on the paper's front page editorial is "Poland disavowed."

No, I'm not sure what that means either.

The issue is the independence of the judiciary which the EU believes is threatened by the ruling, right-wing PIS party which wants more power in the hands of the executive at the expense of the Constitutional Court.

Brussels says this undermines a fundamental principle of democracy, a core value of the Union. It said 13 new laws in two years have enabled the government to "interfere significantly" in the judiciary.

As a result, the paper says, the EU is taking unprecedented disciplinary action against Warsaw. Poland has been given three months to address the concerns.

What worries la Croix is not only the rise of populism in Europe.

The paper says it feeds an hostility to EU institutions that too vigorous interference by Brussels will only reinforce.