French press review 31 August 2011

As is often the case, the French papers can’t agree on the day's top stories.

Libération leads on its front page with what it seems to regard as a scoop:the Bettencourt affair. This allegedly involves illegal payments to Government Ministers by Liliane Bettencourt, the l’Oréal cosmetics heiress and France's richest woman.

The Judge who Accuses Sarkozy, the headline shouts.

The latest allegations appear in a book to be published in France tomorrow. It quotes a Judge previously involved in the case as telling the authors that a witness had seen President Nicolas Sarkozy accept cash during a visit to Bettencourt’s home.

The President denies the allegation. However, other senior politicians are also accused of receiving envelopes stuffed with cash and the affair continues to discomfort Sarkozy's UMP party.

On the front page of Les Echos, L’Oréal’s chief executive tells the paper that – despite the threat of  recession in Europe, the cosmetics market standing up well.

In fact – the company’s profits for the first quarter of this year are up by almost 7 per cent – at €1.5 billion.

Inside, the paper explains that the next challenge for L’Oréal is to conquer Asian markets. Next January, the paper says, it will launch a range of new skin-creams with what is described as "a specific technology"  – whatever that means.

Asians, Agnon is quoted as saying, have little time for perfumes. But, they adore skin creams. L’Oréal’s goal is to double turn-over in the next ten years.

Meanwhile, Aujourd’hui en France wonders why Algeria has welcomed the Kadhafi clan. As you may have heard - the wife, several children and grandchildren of the vanished Libyan dictator crossed the border into neighbouring Algeria by road earlier this week.

Algeria said they accepted the fugitive family as a temporary measure  temporary. The country is strictly neutral vis-à-vis Libya,  the government is quoted as saying.

Neither has it recognized the National Transitional Council. Indeed, the rebels accuse Algeria of having sent mercenary troops to fight against them.

What the Algerian leadership fears, Aujourd’hui says, is contagion. The leadership suspects that there are militant Islamists among the Libyan rebels.

What the country doesn’t want is outside support for its home-grown rebels. Though – quite how offering refuge to Kadhafi’s family helps achieve this is not clear, the paper says.

Le Figaro also takes a look at Algeria on its front page, as well as two inside pages and its editorial pages.

Describing Algeria as Kadhafi’s last supporter, the paper leads on the reaction of the Libyan rebels, who describe Algeria’s behaviour as an act of aggression and, very imprudent.

One writer describes the Algerian regime as myopic, with a foreign policy still driven by anti-imperialist doctrines from the 1970s.

Can Algeria survive the Arab Spring, he asks. The answer is non-commital. Algerians understand that overthrowing an leader doesn’t guarantee regime change.

But with unfulfilled promises of reform, a fear of isolation on the international stage, and moves toward democracy in neighbouring Tunisia, we should not dismiss the possibility of change in Algeria also.

L’Humanité is worried about what it calls ethnic cleansing in Libya. It isn’t good to have black skin in Tripoli, one of the front page sidebars says.

The paper says there is evidence of summary executions and that blacks considered enemies of the Libyan cause are being hunted down.

Some are suspected of being  African mercenaries recruited by the Kadhafi regime. However, the paper says, others are innocent migrant workers who are living in terror and looking for any means to flee the country.

Perhaps Algeria will offer them a humanitarian welcome ?

La Croix makes the point that during the conflict in Libya both sides committed abuses. Though on balance Kadhafi loyalists look to have behaved with greater brutality than the rebels orchestrating summary mass executions.

Especially worrying is that up to 60,000 people were arrested by the regime at the start of popular uprising. Since then, 10,000 have been freed. But, 50,000 are still missing.