French weekly magazines review

The French weeklies are dominated by the final elimination of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. President Nicolas Sarkozy claims that French foreign policy has reached a turning point and defends his immigraton policy. 

“America is back!” shouts Le Point, which puts a US flag and a photograph of President Barak Obama splashed on its cover. The journal narrates the 10-year secret hunt for the terror chief.

 
Le Point says bin Laden’s capture, deep inside Pakistan constitutes one of Obama’s chief political triumphs since taking office in 2008. The weekly magazine notes that the president’s popularity rating surged by 11 points  immediately after he announced bin Laden’s killing, while the usual squabbling Washington political establishment rallied around him. Le Point also underlines that Obama’s use of big stick power, to eliminate the al-Qaeda chief, may deprive Republicans of one of their most-trusted tactics – branding Democrats as national security weaklings.

L’Express also takes up the elimination of the al-Qaeda chief and its consequences on the fight against "terrorism". It is the end of a cycle argues the magazine, noting that Bin Laden was by himself an incarnation of the war against the West.  L’Express states that while he will take to his tomb a radical form of Islamism, serious threats remain to be dealt with.

 
The magazine is particularly concerned about the fate of French nationals held by al-Qaeda in north Africa (Aqim). The journal reports that while Aqim has failed to install an Islamist republic in the Sahel, it made billions of euros protecting drug traffickers using the Sahara desert as their gateway into European markets. On its part, Le Point claims that Aqim is demanding a ransom of over 100 million euros to free four French hostages taken last year, from the Aréva uranium mining plant in Niger.
 
Former French diplomat and anti-terrorism expert Pierre Filiu, says Bin Laden’s death marks a turning point in al-Qaeda’s decline. Professor Filiu tells Le Point and L’Express that al-Qaeda considers France as a small devil, in the light of its troop deployments in Afghanistan and the new law on the burka.The academic however argues that al-Qaeda is in peril, with no succession mechanism in place and a deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri who has neither the clout, stature nor the charisma to replace bin Laden.

One of the arguments he puts forward is that the ongoing Arab spring will only compound the silencing of the decapitated terrorist organization.

L’Express takes up the fight against terrorism in an exclusive interview with French president Nicholas Sarkozy. 

 
The French leader tells the magazine that bin Laden’s death and the uprising in the Arab world mark a turning point in French foreign policy. He defends France’s championing of the UN-backed operation in Libya. Sarkozy denies that Kadhafi’s elimination was the objective of last week’s airstrikes on a Tripoli home that left one of his sons killed. The French leader reiterates that the Nato airstrikes are aimed at creating conditions for direct talks between the Libyan regime and the democratic rebellion in Benghazi.

The French president also defends his calls for the suspension of the Schengen accords. Sarkozy holds that the free movement treaty has become obsolete, with no one at the EU headquarters in Brussels in charge of evaluating its impact or keeping track of migratory trend in the bloc. The treaty threatens the equilibrium of the European social system, according to Sarkozy. The French leader insists .there must be a reevaluation to enable the EU to deal with the changing democratic landscape in northern Africa and refugees streaming into Europe.

Immigration policy is at the heart of Sarkozy’s drive to win back voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections. He defends the plan by Interior Minister Claude Guéant to cap legal immigration into France. The French leader puts immigrant unemployment in France at 23 per cent, a situation he claims must be resolved before more intakes of immigrants. Sarkozy says there will be no relenting on his policy to cut the 35-year budget deficit .The French leader estimates that seven million workers stand to  benefit from his new company profit bonus scheme, which goes into effect this year.

Le Canard Enchaîné isn’t happy about how some money-churning companies are applying the the presidential directive. It reveals that the Lagardère group paid its workers 720 euros in bonuses last year, while five of the company’s top chiefs shared over 13 million euros. The weekly says all is fine and there’s no rioting at the company about the peanuts
 

This week’s Le Point closes up on the IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is set to announce his candidacy for the Socialist Party presidential primaries. The magazine runs a 10-page dossier on DSK, as he's known, as he prepares for the big moment. Le Point reveals some of the secret contacts he has made to bolster his candidacy. There are excerpts from a new Strauss-Kahn biography. And a leading French scholar tells the magazine how the the IMF chief has shaped up to “imitate the false humility of François Mitterrand” who led the Socialist party to victory in the 1981 presidential elections.