French Press Review 28 August 2009

by Michael Fitzpatrick

Article published on the 2009-08-28 Latest update 2009-08-28 06:30 TU

Three of the French dailies give front-page honours to the Socialist Party, which is embarking, this weekend on something called its "summer university".

Party leader Martine Aubry has been doing her best to smooth over the cracks, some of them wider than the Kenyan Rift Valley. Her main promise—that there will be American-style primaries to choose the Socialist candidate to oppose Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election—seems like a recipe for even further discord.

Le Monde has Aubry explaining her vision of the future of French socialism, and you are unlikely to come across a finer piece of fiction if you read all 659 novels being launched this week in the publishing lemming-rush which the French call "la rentrée".

Right-wing Le Figaro looks forward to a divisive weekend of murderous dispute.

And leftist Libération has Madame Martine attempting to defuse the various explosive issues that are likely to go off very publicly as the unsociable Socialists try to socialise.

Communist l'Humanité is not happy with the French president, because of what it calls "Sarkozy's five lies". Eleven months ago in Toulon, Sarko promised to clean up capitalism, abolish big bonuses, create jobs, balance the national books, and make us all, more or less, comfortable.

Alas, says l'Huma, he lied.

It's hard, these days, to find a good word about either banks or bankers in the French public prints. Business daily Les Echos says the blackguards are to blame for keeping the European economy on slow time, by refusing to lend money to impoverished consumers who would then rush out and throw the borrowed cash away on new cars, flat-screen TVs, i-phones, and shoes for the kids.

That consumer frenzy is—the theory goes—just what the doctor ordered to get the economic ball rolling again, but the banks are unreasonably refusing the readies.

Catholic La Croix looks to Gabon and tries to imagine what life will be like after Sunday's elections put an end to the Omar Bongo era. Without being too cynical, after 42 years of Omar, Gabon is likely to get more of the same under Ali, son and political heir of he who was Africa's longest serving president.

Let Gabon's electoral scrutinizers take a leaf from the book of Belorussian president, Alexander Loukachenko, the man some people call Europe's last dictator.

According to Libération, old Alex has admitted that he falsified the results of the last presidential election, in 2006, which comes as no particular surprise to anyone, except that the good geezer falsified them against himself!

He actually got 93 per cent of the vote, but told the electoral commission to knock it down to around 80 per cent, just in case people might suspect there'd been any fudging. The very idea!