French press review 5 April 2013

The French press is dominated by the political storm that has hit President François Hollande after his budget minister’s confession that he had a secret Swiss account and revelations about the secret world of tax havens.

Hollande is really in the eye of the storm and the papers aren’t sparing him after Le Monde reported that his campaign treasurer has offshore investments, following the disgrace of Jérôme Cahuzac.

Le Monde claims that the study carried out by 86 journalists from 46 countries, unveils how some120,000 front companies are generating an estimated 1.6 trillion dollars from activites that include fraud, tax dodging and political corruption.

The haul amounts to 2.5 million files, the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by the media, 160 times larger than the Wikileaks files stolen from the US State Department in 2010.

The “revelations are hell for Hollande”, screams Le Monde even though his ex-campaign treasurer has defended the legality of his investments in the Cayman Islands.

“Hollande in dead end”, crows right-wing Le Figaro, very much pleased to turn the knife in the wounds still bleeding from the revelations about his ex-financial advisor. “After Cahuzac, here comes Jean-Jacques Augier, Hollande’s friend of 30 years,” gloats the right-wing newspaper. The “left’s adventures in power are beginning to resemble a cracked record,” it says, adding that the “Socialists are moving around completely demoralised, with money at the centre of everything they do”.

This is “one affaire too many”, quips the economic newspaper Les Echos, pointing out that “Cahuzac bombshell” and the offshore accounts of his friend come on top of the president’s nose-dive in the polls.

L’Humanité groans about the “great escape” - of money to offshore accounts - regretting that the collusion between moneymen and politicians is the root cause of a system that breeds austerity. The Communist Party daily puts the amount of money stashed away by French tax defaulters every year at an estimated 40 billion euros.

“You don’t shoot at an ambulance,” goes an old adage and L'Humanité has a rare moment of pity for Hollande. The paper slams UMP leader Jean-Francois Copé for daring to brand the president a “gang leader” at a time when his troops are tabling a bill in parliament “seeking a tax amnesty for exiled tycoons”.

Libération notes that, despite ruling out a reshuffle, “President Hollande remains under siege”. His Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici is “trapped in the storm”, weakened by  Cahuzac’s confession at a time when France is struck by a serious economic crisis. The opposition, it says, accuses Moscovici of having shielded the budget minister and are clamouring for his resignation.

“You have to be an activist of the opposition UMP party to think that a cabinet reshuffle suffices to restore confidence in the economy,” argues Les Echos.

The Catholic daily La Croix asks six leading French personalities what can be done to bring a sense of morality in politics.

“All politicians are not rotten,” said one of them. Another holds that it is a fantasy to believe that politics can be pure, while another calls for a total crackdown on conflict of interest.