French press review 11 September 2014

There's a whiff of disaster about this morning's front pages . . . "Government paralysed by the failure of its economic policies," reads the main headline in Le Monde. "Hollande in the red," is Libération's version of the same story. "Shipwreck!" screams the front page of conservative Le Figaro.

And even communist L'Humanité has a bad word to say of the president who once assured us he would renegotiate France's obligations to her European partners: "He doesn't negotiate," says the communist paper, "he gives in."

If you want something other than economic gloom and doom, you'd be well advised to turn to catholic La Croix where the moves by some European regions, like Scotland, Catalonia and Flemish Belgium, towards independence are worrying national governments and the European Union.

Or there's sports daily L'Equipe, over the moon about the exploits of the French basketball team, just one victory away from a place in the World Cup final.

But, let's get back to the economic apocalypse . . .

The public debt is the only part of the economic equation showing any signs of growth. Things are so bad, even inflation is slowing down.

Yesterday, the finance minister, Michel Sapin, convened an "urgent" press conference to explain that, given the flatline state of the economy, we are now in a crisis situation comparable to the 2008 banking collapse, or the 2011 stumble which nearly broke the eurozone.

Sapin claims that nobody saw this coming, that the situation is so bad it defies even the least optimistic predictions. Lies, trumpets L'Humanité. As long ago as April, 2013, the general secretary of the CGT trade union was warning the government that the growing growl of discontent within socialist ranks was a reaction to the possibility that growth forecasts, modest though they were, were not likely to be met.

Therefore, a long series of promises, to Brussels, to Germany, to the struggling French taxpayer, to the unemployed millions, will have to be toned down. France won't get the public debt down to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of next year. The unemployment figures are not getting any better. The crisis is not over.

Libération says that President Hollande has long hoped on a global return to growth which would, coincidentally, drag France out of the doldrums. Such a scenario is, tragically, no longer credible.

The left-wing daily wonders if having the former socialist budget minister, Pierre Moscovici, in the European Commission's Economic Affairs job might help the French off the hook. Probably not, is Libé's answer, reminding us that Moscovici's first words on taking the Brussels job were "I'll be governed by rules and commitments."

The new Economic Affairs Commissioner will face the unhappy task of analysing a budget which he himself launched while he was still part of the Hollande cabinet, but which has no hope of reaching the promised targets. Just how critical will the commissioner allow himself to be of his own fudge and fabulation when he was merely a minister?

The commission president says "Pierre Moscovici is well placed to help resolve the French debt problem," suggesting either that Jean-Claude Junker is as funny as a sack of sick wombats, or that he believes in the wisdom of the saying "set a thief to catch a thief".

As the European ship goes down with all hands, it's perhaps not surprising to see the re-emergence of regional demands for independence. Catholic daily paper, La Croix, says that the various demands for regional autonomy are clearly fuelled by a reaction against the failings of the globalised economy.

But La Croix stresses that there are very different components in the calls for independence coming from Scotland, from Spain's Catalonia, from Belgium's Flanders. In fact, suggests the catholic paper's analysis, none of these regions started out with a clear separatist policy. That has been forced on them by more-or-less indifferent central government. Rulers take note.