French press review 9 November 2009

by Michael Fitzpatrick

Article published on the 2009-12-09 Latest update 2009-12-09 10:25 TU

When the rest of the French dailies are coming down with doom, gloom and common catastrophe, you can generally depend on business paper Les Echos to raise the tone. And sure enough, this morning they ignore the planetary crisis that has led to the Copenhagen summit in order to focus on the far more important crisis that is ravaging Europe's economies.

Times are hard, with Greece the latest on the list of EU economies to suffer the indignity of a downgrade. No fewer than seven of the 27 members of the European trading bloc have now had their economic prospects revised downwards by the agencies whose job it is to advise investors where NOT to put their money.

Religion, in one form or another, dominates the morning's other front pages.

La Croix looks at the anger of Irish Catholics in the wake of a report detailing several decades of sexual abuse by priests, abuse which, it is now tragically clear, was systematically covered up by the bishops who were in charge. There will be changes, law suits for compensation, and a certain number of sacked bishops. There may even, suggests La Croix, be a chance to reform the Catholic Church in Ireland. And that would be no bad thing.

Le Monde, Le Figaro and Libération look at the anger of French Muslims.

Le Monde, you see, has a letter from Nick Sarkozy, president of the French Republic.

Nick is shocked by the recent Swiss decision to ban the building of minarets. He recognises that Switzerland has a long tradition of popular democracy, but feels that the question was too complicated to be left to mere voters. The French president warns Swiss political leaders against turning a collective deaf ear to the voice of the people, saying that failure to take account of the sufferings of voters is playing into the hands of the extremes.

Right-wing Le Figaro, probably as happy as a sick snake that they didn't get to publish the letter in the first place, devotes a colour picture, two pages and a lengthy editorial to analysing the president's observations. They summarise the whole operation in a headline which reads "Sarkozy reminds French Muslims of their rights and obligations".

Dominique de Villepin, quoted in the same Figaro, has a different summary: he says Sarko has his eye on next spring's regional elections, and has reduced a crucial question of social cohesion to a vote-grabbing slogan.

As for Libération, it gives the right of reply to five representatives of France's Muslim community. They find the president's vision of Islam "limited and limiting," notably criticising Sarkozy's treatment of Islam as the religion of immigrants.

Le Monde also looks at divisions troubling the Copenhagen climate summit. Divisions between north and south, with the poorer countries wondering why they have to carry the trashcan containing the carbon waste dumped by the developed world, and pay for the privilege; divisions between Good Green People and Bad Sceptics. Yesterday, Saudi Arabian experts cast doubts on the scientific evidence indicating that the continued burning of fossil fuels will cause a climatic catastrophe. But, then they would, wouldn't they: if Copenhagen ends with an agreement limiting carbon emissions, Saudi Arabia will lose an estimated $4,000 billion between now and the year 2030.

You can buy a lot of expert scepticism for $4,000 billion.