French press review 25 March 2015

Today's French papers cover yesterday's air tragedy in the French Alps. But they also have room for the left's problems in regional elections and philosphers discussing the end of civilisation as the West knows it.

In the absence of any real information Le Figaro speculates on the likely causes of the crash, which range from bad weather to a terrorist attack. But the paper is obliged to admit that all current evidence suggests that yesterday's disaster was a tragic accident.

Catholic paper La Croix says the 150 deaths of those on board have plunged all Europe into mourning.

Libération, with scant regard for the feelings of the victims' families, says there's nothing left of the Germanwings flight but "wreckage and bodies."

All papers note the inexplicably rapid final descent of the aircraft, which lost 9,500 metres of altitude in nine minutes. No distress signal was sent out by the pilot. But the flight recorder, the so-called "black box", has been recovered and is expected to provide at least the beginning of an explanation.

Communist L'Humanité and centrist Le Monde both continue to rake over the coals of last Sunday's first round in the French departmental elections.

The communist daily says that attempts by left-wing activists to mobilise support for struggling socialist candidates in next weekend's second round are being hindered by divisions on the government's insistence that austerity is the only economic remedy worth the name.

For French communists, says L'Humanité, it is essential to block the "reactionary forces" of the far right, while at the same time maintaining the impetus of the first round and its clear message of rejection of the current government.

Mathieu Gallet could do with a miracle. He's the boss down at Radio France, doing what bosses do best, getting rid of employees and provoking strikes.

Most of Radio France has been off the airwaves for the past seven days. The strikers are annoyed that their boss can talk about thinning out the staff to save money at the same time as allowing 100,000 euros to be spent on refurbishing his office. Now, if satirical weekly paper Le Canard Enchaîné is to be believed, Chief Gallet might have bent the rules a bit in taking on a personal communications specialist for 90,000 euros per year, without following the rules for the appointment of public servants.

On a far more serious note, Le Figaro organises a debate between two French philosophers on the topic of, basically, the end of civilisation.

Le Figaro means European civilisation and the end will be caused, not by the fundamentalist armies of Islamic darkness but by neoliberal economists who created a system that has now passed its sell-by date.

Europe's version of the civilised life has lasted 1,500 years. Not bad, but it's over.

The other guy says that the problem is the immense ingratitude of current generations, who are carelessly demolishing a cultural heritage which is the sole basis of the great freedom they enjoy.

The debate ends with the ingratitude guy saying "We're still alive, things may be bad, but the future is not carved in stone. The crucial fact about human freedom is the ability to make things possible that, to all logical appearance, are not."

And the ball burst, game-over guy says, with touching detachment.