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French press review 26 February 2014

France is still  struggling with its budget deficit. Bouteflika is standing for reelection as Algeria's president ... but does he know?

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The state of state finances here in France makes the front pages of right-wing Le Figaro and business daily Les Echos .

"France will have to do better," says the business paper.

"France scares the screaming daylights out of Europe," is a rough translation of right-wing Le Figaro's slightly more polemical take on the same story.

The facts are stark and simple: despite repeated promises from Paris that the budget deficit would be wrestled below the level of 3.0 per cent of gross domestic product in the course of this year, Brussels says it won't. France's national overspend is likely to remain at the level of 4.0 per cent for at least the next two years, according to the European Union.

Economic growth this year, which is unlikely to exceed one per cent, won't be enough to boost the jobs market. Despite President François Hollande's solemn promise to bring down the unemployment statistics by the end of 2014, Brussels is warning that the number of those out of work is going to stabilise at about 11.0 per cent of the active population for the next two years.

Le Figaro's editorial on the same subject is an angry rant.

Exactly one year ago, France begged Brussels for an extra 12 months in which to put its financial house in order. And here we are again, the government still promising that the miracle is just about to happen, that all will be well, and Brussels tut-tutting nervously, warning that two years of unkept promises haven't brought France any closer to real financial health, it declares.

Le Figaro says the neighbours have done the necessary and are being rewarded with miraculous growth. That's a bit of an exaggeration, since Spain is expected to do as well as (or no worse than) France this year, Italy less well and only Germany will see a far-from-miraculous 1.8 per cent growth rate.

How is the government going to save 50 billion euros, asks Le Figaro, when the authorities cave in on every reform proposal in the face of the slightest popular opposition.

And as for the famous responsibility pact with which the president has attempted to harness big business to help drag France out of the current mess, the negotiations are bogged down in details which are mere technicalities for the Socialist administration, matters of life and death for organisations already struggling at a disadvantage in the global marketplace. Le Figaro goes on to suggest that, if the president really wants to help the country, he could hardly do better than dissolve parliament . . . or abolish the Socialist Party!

Algeria's elections, due on 17 April, get pride of place on the front page of satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaîné.

The paper wonders if the sitting president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, actually knows that's he's going to be standing for reelection . . . for a fouth time . . . since his candidacy was announced on his behalf by the prime mnister. Bouteflika is 77 years old and suffered a stroke in April. He has made only two public appearances since then and the day-to-day running of presidential affairs is handled by his assistants, principally his younger brother and some tough dudes from the army and intelligence service.

Those Algerians who value stability don't care about the president's health, provided he wins the election. One elector is quoted as saying "I'd vote for Bouteflika, dead or alive."

Others worry that the price of stability is a continuation of the client structures and corruption that have undermined the north African country's development since independence.

Mass unemployment, regional divisions, Ilamic fundamentalism and a very young, very frustrated population are among the elements in the Algerian situation that encourage Le Canard Enchaîné to note, with an ironic glance at earlier Aab revolutions, that spring starts in a month's time.
 

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