French press review 28 September 2016

Poor job figures bring new setback to President Francois Hollande's re-election plans, while revelations about  Nicolas Sarkozy in a new damning book by his former  political advisor Patrick Buisson could seriously damage his presidential ambitions.

We begin with reactions to the grim news for French President Hollande as the  number of unemployed in mainland France grew by over 50,000,  to 3.56 million.

The rise after a slight decrease in July, represents 1.4 percent, the biggest in a single month since January 2013 . Monsieur Hollande had been banking on a brighter picture to boost his re-election prospects.

Le Figaro

The rightwing publication ridicules claims by Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri that the bad figures were caused by the jihadist attacks in Nice and Normandy in July.

"This is proof that the situation remains dramatic on the labour front and very far from the turnaround President Hollande's supporters had been humming about," le Figaro reads.

According to newspaper, "no matter the zeal with which they will manipulate the figures, it will be hard to convince voters that things are getting better, with 685,000 additional workers out of work since 2012".

 L'Humanité

"The worse is still to come" warns the Communist daily. It claims that the "increased atomization of the economy could shed some 3 million jobs in France by 2025".

From L'Huma's point of view, "in the face of such a colossal challenge, the necessity of designing a major innovative industrial project for France has become an absolute emergency".

Libération

Libé purrs into the "troubling scandals piling up at former President Nicolas Sarkozy' door".

This as it pointed to the placing under investigation of two former top police and intelligence chiefs who worked closely with conservative Republican party leader during his time in the Elysée.

Prosecutors have detained Bernard Squarcini and Christian Flaesch for questioning in connection with suspected influence peddling and attempts to obtain information on the Elysée phone tapping affair affecting Sarkozy.

For the left-leaning newspaper, while this new affair remains under investigation,  varying verdicts rendered by prosecutors on other Sarkozy case show that there isn't an agenda to victimize the conservative leader, as his lawyers claim.

L'Alsace

“A strong odour filled the air around Sarkozy” writes the regional daily. The comment follows media reports on Tuesday about damaging revelations in a new book by the ex-President's political adviser Patrick Buisson. 

That was coupled with allegations that prosecutors had discovered compromizing details about Libya's funding of Monsieur Sarkozy's 2012 campaign in his dairy impounded over another investigation.

Several papers lead with the nasty showdown between Hillary CLINTON and Donald Trump in Tuesday's first presidential debate in which the White House hopefuls sparred on the economy, crime, foreign policy and more personal issues.

Le Monde

The newspaper expressed delight at Clinton's revival of her candidacy. "We saw her stagger after the malaise on September 11",  observes the paper. "Two weeks later ", it says, "what it discovered was a energetic democratic candidate confronting the Donald in a strong performance". 

La Montagne/Centre France

According to the regional paper, "this first debate confirms the adage that in politics just like in the real estate business, professionalism inspires confidence".

That’s a lesson the Republican candidate learned during the debate, says La Montagne, which goes on to criticize Trump’s "vague, imprecise and poor performance which betrayed his lack of preparation and ignorance of issues".