French press review 19 October 2013

The "Leonarda affair" which has polarised opinion in France since Thursday is still very much on every front page this morning.

Le Figaro reports that a weakened Interior Minister Manuel Valls has cut short a visit to the overseas territories in the West Indies to rush back to Paris to deal with the fallout.

Thousands of students protested in France and shut schools across the country on Friday in continued demonstrations against the deportation of the 15-year-old Roma Leonarda Dibrani to Kosovo as well as other foreign pupils.

The right-wing newspaper quotes government sources saying that Valls is due to make a statement about the controversy after receiving the findings of an investigation into how the girl’s expulsion was handled. Much of the anger has focused on how Dibrani was  forced outs of a bus full of classmates on a school outing and deported with the rest of her family to Kosovo.

For Le Figaro, the matter looks irresolvable, considering that the government is left only with bad solutions whatever it decides to do. It argues that allowing the girl to return to France would constitute a defeat for the rule of law but not bringing her back will enrage the left with the possible consequences of more violent protests.

Libération reports that Valls threatened to resign on Friday because of criticism on the left and allegations that President François Hollande was considering to bringing Dibrani back to France.

The interior minister will be consoled by a new survey published in this morning’s Aujourd’hui en France. The BVA poll ordered by the public Television news channel i>Télé and the Parisian newspaper found that 74 per cent of the French people support him against his left-wing critics. He receives a massive 89 per cent endorsement from citizens with declared right-wing affiliations.

Aujourd’hui en France examines the consequences a Front National candidate's comparison of Justice Minister Christiane Taubira to a monkey.

The paper reports that Anne-Sophie Leclère, who had been set to stand for the FN in her home town in the Ardennes, posted the racist montage on a Facebook account. She has since been suspended by the Front National but the Parisian newspaper underlines that the episode is just another instance of the racism in Marine Le Pen’s party as well as its difficulties in controlling its newest recruits.

Le Figaro says there will be no conscience clause for mayors refusing to marry gay couples. The paper reached the conclusion after France's top court Friday threw out an appeal by right-wing local officials who oppose the law, which entered into force in May, on grounds that it goes against their beliefs.

Le Figaro explains that, while the Socialists are celebrating the Constitutional Court’s verdict, they haven’t reaped any political benefits from making mainly Catholic France the 14th country to allow same-sex marriages. It cites a new survey by the Ifop polling institute which found out that Socialist gays remain stable at 17 per cent, while the ranks of homosexuals backing the Front National has swollen from 10 to 15 per cent.

Aujourd’hui en France reports that tax inspectors have hit the jackpot during a crackdown on tax evaders. According to the paper, 1.5 million controls have been carried out since 2012 and the booty harvested stands so far at 14.2 billion euros, including an additional 3.8 billion euros in penalties.

Anti-fiscal fraud agents told the paper that the vast majority of tax evaders were discovered in Paris, the wealthy Hauts-de-Seine neighbourhood outside the capital and Les Bouches-du-Rhône administrative area in southern France.

Aujourd’hui en France reports that a housewife living in south-western France almost swallowed her tongue, after receiving a fine of 46,000 euros. The paper reports that the part-time hypnotist simply forgot to declare "tips" she received from her clients, who were mainly acquaintances.