French press review 13 December 2014

Should politicians be outed? Is French artistic production under threat? How do France’s letters get delivered? And is homework good for school students?

French website Slate opposes the outing of politicians. Slate is reacting to the outing of Florian Phillippot, the number two of the far-right Front National (FN) this week by Closer magazine.

Some pictures of the politician and his boyfriend were printed by the tabloid.

Most French politicians were quick to condemn the revelations and Slate seems to share the common opinion that outing someone - revealing his homosexuality against his will - is never a good idea.

The website explains that what should be analysed is not who is - or isn't - gay but what kind of relation exists between politics and sexuality.

That’s important, especially when it comes to the FN, because the party is against gay marriage.

There is one interesting thing with this story, according to Slate. Florian Phillippot's boyfriend is apparently a TV journalist.

And that looks bad for the FN because it wants to be seen as anti-system and frequently criticises the media.

Libération is headlining on culture today.

The left-leaning newspaper has interviewed Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin.

The daily says that French culture is at risk because the culture budget has been dramatically reduced over the last few years.

It went from 2.79 billion euros in 2010 to 2.58 billion euros in 2015.

That has an impact on a lot of different things, explains Libération, because the culture sector is heavily funded by the state in France.

For instance, in another article of the paper you’ll learn that the new mayor of Grenoble had to cut the southern city’s budget by six million euros.

That has a direct impact on a local baroque orchestra has had its subsidy cut and may have to leave the town.

Pellerin is tries to reassure the public in the interview but even she admits that “there is a risk for [artistic] creation in France”.

La Croix is talking about letters today.

"Twenty-four hours in the life of a letter" reads a headline in the Catholic daily. La Croix explains what happens when you send a letter in France.

Take a letter sent from Paris, it will be transported via a mailbox, a truck, a factory, another truck, another factory, another truck and finally a bike.

A letter La Croix posted was sent at 11.30am and arrived the next day at 10.00am in Puy de Dôme in the mountainous centre of France.

What's interesting to note is that the French post is handling fewer and fewer letters. In 2013 it delivered 14 billion of them, compared to 18.5 billion in 2002.

This is not good news for kids around the world but apparently homework is a good thing.

Right-wing Le Figaro is writing about a study by international student assessment body Pisa.

Apparently students across the OECD countries spend an average of five hours a week doing school homework.

And that's a good thing.

The more homework, the better the students perform at school, explains the daily.

France is right on the average, with its high-schoolers working 5.1 hours at home per week.

The country where students spend the most time on homework is Russia with seven hours and the one where they spend the least is Finland with three hours.

There is another interesting finding in this article - poor students spend less time on their homework.

That's often due to a lack of space and the fact that parents don't have time to help their children, explains Le Figaro.