French press review 11 August 2011

President Nicolas Sarkozy gets low marks for his reaction the economic crisis so far - even from Le Figaro. The price of peaches - and other fruit and veg - plummets. And should French beaches become no-smoking areas?

Le Figaro leads with “The Financial Crisis: Sarkozy prepares his response”. The French president and Prime Minister François Fillon interrupted their vacation to rush to Paris to find a way out of the current financial mess.

On the topic, the paper published an editorial called “Sarkozy and the liars”, which says that Sarkozy needs to learn that “you don’t handle a financial crisis the same way you do a diplomatic one”. In other words, home or on vacation, there is little any politician can do now.

The article also says that the current government should learn a few lessons from the left  and maybe seriously think about reforming tax breaks etc in the country. Because, the authors says, Sarkozy cannot begin his presidential campaign while lying to the French with assurances that everything is going to be fine.

The reason this article is interesting is because Le Figaro is a conservative newspaper that rarely criticises the government. On the other hand, this is an editorial on page 16. It is in the back of the paper, away from the main, factual story on the front page and pages 2 and 3.

Libération notes that the same day Sarkozy chose to come back to work, French markets and shares fell. The problem, the paper says, is that the French government didn’t present any solutions at the end of their emergency meeting yesterday. They were supposed to reassure markets, but for that they need to show that they can handle the situation.

Communist newspaper L’Humanité is also very critical of the meeting. It says that “Sarkozy is giving up on economic growth”. The only thing that did come out of the meeting, it says, was that ministers congratulated themselves on the raising of the retirement age, a reform that was voted last year and is now coming into effect.

Socialists and Communists have always been against the measure, saying it is not fair to make the people pay for the government’s mistakes.

That said, French ministers will have to present their ideas on how to deal with the crisis by 17t August, and a plan will be outlined on 24 August when the government officially reconvenes.

Catholic paper La Croix leads with another crisis this morning: French fruit and vegetable farmers can no longer live off their harvest. Prices of tomatoes and peaches have fallen especially low.

One farmer says that is actually costs more to produce the fruit that what they can sell it for. Part of the reason is the bad weather. There has been little sun but lots of rain, but that’s not enough for tomatoes and peaches.

Then there was the E coli crisis that put off a lot of people from fruits and vegetables. The last reason is that French farmers can’t compete on an international level. In the end, their produce is still more expensive than Spain’s, for example, pushing big time buyers/sellers to move away from French fruit.

Will France’s beaches become smoke-free? The question preoccupies Aujourd’hui en France this morning. According to a poll done by the paper, 63 per cent of French are in favour of the measure - not just because they don’t want to sunbathe next to a cloud of smoke, but also because smokers can’t seem to pick up after themselves and council workers are sick of picking up cigarette butts all day, every day.