French press review, 27 May 2010

Scrambling for voting buttons as the Russian parliament seemed to turn into a gameshow, some rather desperate counter-suicide measures and debates on retirement and the French housing market. A look at this morning's French newspapers.

There were strange things to be seen in the Russian Douma, or parliament, in Moscow yesterday, as deputies ran around like blue-arsed flies, diving across desks, plunging from place to place as if their lives depended upon it.

At stake was a vote on a law which would make it illegal to be as pissed as a newt while driving.

What you have to understand is that a minimum number of votes is required to establish a quorum, and that very few deputies ever bother to show up. Yesterday, for example, just 88 of the 450 parliamentary seats were occupied.

But those present have exactly 20 seconds to press the voting buttons of their missing colleagues. Hence the scenes of athletic confusion as the comrades galloped around, pushing the "yes" button for all they were worth. That's in Libération.

And they may have set some sort of record: they managed to push enough buttons inside the 20 seconds to get the law passed virtually unanimously, and almost anonymously too. Well done, those lads.

Libération reports on a company in Taiwan which has recently been struck by a tragic wave of employee suicides. No fewer than 12 staff members have left the office, permanently, by the top floor windows since the start of this year.

So now, management have decided to ask each worker to sign a promise not kill himself while on the job. In a touching example of the triumph of common sense over faith in human nature, management have also installed nets all around the building, to catch those who might fail to abide by the duly signed document. Once freed from the nets, said employees will presumably be sacked on the spot. And they can then go off and kill themselves somewhere else.

Retirement dominates this morning's front pages ...not so surprisingly, since French trade unions have called for a nationwide strike this very day, to protest against government plans to reform retirement.

Basically, the powers-that-be want us all to work longer, beyond the official age of 60 established back in the 1980s by the Socialist president, François Mitterrand.

Libération says the government plan will serve only to deepen the gulf between rich and poor, and, far from saving money, will leave a defecit of 20 billion euros.

Catholic La Croix asks if it's reasonable to ask people to work beyond the age of 60. It all depends on the work and the worker is the ambivalent answer. The main problem is that, the longer you work, the longer you contribute to your own pension scheme, and the government, already head, neck and ears in debt, badly needs those contributions.

Le Monde sees today's strike call as a crucial test for bith the unions and the government. Most people seem to accept the economic logic of the government's position, but they remain attached to the idea of leaving the job at 60.

Business daily Les Echos also sees it as a big test for both sides, warning that nothing less than Nicolas Sarkozy's credibility as a reforming president is at stake.

Faced with a massive national debate, a hostile electorate and a country potentially reduced to a standstill, right-wing Le Figaro does what any self-respecting government newspaper would do and devotes its main headline to something else entirely.

According to real estate analysts, the French housing market has turned the corner. For rich, right-wing property magnates and rent profiteers, things could hardly get better.