French press review 17 September 2009

by Lance King

Article published on the 2009-09-17 Latest update 2009-09-17 07:27 TU

Right wing Le Figaro this morning says that the government here in France is going to crack down on marriages of convenience. That is to say, getting hitched for immigration papers to live in France.

According to Le Figaro, marriage is the path most often travelled for immigrants moving to France. In 2009, 40 percent of all immigrants the have a long term residency card, got it through marriage. Every year about 50,000 people from abroad marry a French man or women and move here.

Well, Le Figaro says the government will be watching more closely to see if nearly weds are truly the couple they claim to be. 

The minister of Immigration, Eric Besson has appointed UMP deputy Claude Greff to set up a group specifically designed to check up on marriages involving foreigners to French citizens.

They get to work in October.

Elsewhere, centrist daily Le Monde says that the banning of the Islamic headscarf in public schools in the city Antwerp in Belgium is stirring up a debate.

In fact, a movement is growing called “free choice” by girls who feel it is their right to wear a veil if they choose to do so.

Basically, there was so much controversy in Antewerp over the right to wear a veil to school or not, that they finally just decided to ban wearing any religious symbols in school.  It will go into effect in one year.

So, some people are hoping to set up their own schools in Antwerp where veils are allowed, which they can do in Belgium.  However the schools have to meet certain criteria.  They have to have a minimum number of students and follow a particular curriculum.

Finally, the left wing Libération tells us that the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, is the favourite to take over the post of Secretary General of UNESCO. Voting gets underway today but will take a few days.

Some people don't agree he's the best man for the job and say he's anti-Semitic.

Libération points out that Hosni did once say at parliament that he would "burn Jewish books, if he found any in an Egyptian library.”

He later apologized for the statements in the centrist Le Monde.  But that apparently wasn’t enough for everyone.