French press review 9 May 2012

No prizes for guessing that this morning's front pages are dominated by the president-elect, François Hollande, and the man he will replace later this month, Nicolas Sarkozy.

What is surprising is that the two men are together, united by the republic, as the front page headline in Le Figaro puts it.

The pair were at the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris yesterday, taking part in celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

Their public unity proved, says Le Figaro, that there are certain historical obligations which transcend the petty squabbles of everyday politics.

Bravo to both men, Le Figaro continues, to Sarkozy for inviting the rival with whom he argued so bitterly in the course of a vicious campaign; to Hollande for accepting an invitation that a lesser man might have considered it wiser to refuse.

But, and there's always a "but" when right-wing Le Figaro praises left-wing Hollande, yesterday's public unity cannot disguise the fact that post-election France is cut in two, perhaps more, pieces.

There are the various component parts of the left, supposedly under Hollande's control but eminently capable of surging in a red wave across the political landscape and taking us all with it.

Then there's the deeply fractured right, the mainstream riven by post-defeat witch-hunting and power-grabbing, with the menance of the far-right Front National no less real for the cosmetic changes so skilfully applied by Marine Le Pen.

The fact is, says Le Figaro, that François Hollande has a very simple choice. He can continue to act on the socialist delusion that the world will follow the French left.

Or he can accept the harsh fact that the real forces to be dealt with are global, unforgiving, and couldn't give a used yuan for the Unknown Soldier or for those who stood solemnly by his grave yesterday. France is waiting, says Le Figaro.

Left-leaning Libération also gives pride of place to yesterday's solemn moment of national unity, praising the state's two first citizens for their capacity to forget past insults and accept a deeper truth than contemporary politics.

Libération is very happy to note that Europe seems to have heard president-to-be Hollande's call for an end to austerity.

The paper says it took a change of president in France to do what widespread European recession could not: realise that spending cuts are never going to be enough to get the old continent's economies turning again.

Now, with the Greeks rattling their debt-laden chains and France threatening to tell the Germans to stop pushing the rest of us around, the Europeans have decided to call a summit of heads of state with a view to seeing how best to stimulate economic growth.

Investment and increased spending power are the obvious answers. But ensuring the investment means convincing the big industrial groups that they should start spending their currently massive cash reserves, money which the wise and miserly captains of industry have been putting aside against even darker days ahead.

Increased spending power means either cheaper goods and services or pay rises. The aforementioned captains of industry won't like either option.