French press review 6 June 2015

A controversial decision by the European Court of Human rights in the case of Vincent Lambert, the Frenchman described as "brain-dead" following a road accident. Is the political party a thing of the past? And can the Greek Prime Minister meet European demands for reform without losing his grip?

Vincent Lambert, the 38-year-old tragically injured in a road accident, is considered by his doctors to be brain-dead but kept alive artificially because modern medicine can do that.

Lambert's fate has become a battleground, notably dividing his wife, who believes her husband would not wish to continue to live under such conditions, from the injured man's parents, fervent Catholics, who believe in the sanctity of life, irrespective of the quality of existence that might imply.

Yesterday, as reported on the front page of right-wing paper, Le Figaro, the European Court of Human Rights supported earlier decisions by French courts when the European body decided that doctors would be justified in ending the artificial feeding and hydration of Vincent Lambert.

The ruling is a strange one since it distinguishes between "treatment" which can be withdrawn and "care" to which everyone has an inalienable right. The European judges yesterday decided that artificial feeding is treatment, not care, and can therefore be stopped.

Lambert's wife, Rachel, has welcomed the decision, saying that her husband's profound wish has finally been realised. But Lambert's mother says she is scandalised by the ruling and has vowed to continue the fight to keep her son alive.

Now a practical agreement has to be worked out between the family and the team of doctors responsible for the injured man. Somebody will have to switch off the machines that keep him alive. Yesterday's decision won't make that any easier.

Are political parties history?

That's a rough translation of the main headline in Libération. The left-leaning daily takes the occasion of this weekend's Socialist Party congress to wonder about the life-expectancy of political organisations in general. Divided, renamed, abused, deserted by former supporters, ignored by voters, reduced to the level of machines for personal advancement, perhaps the era of the political party has already passed, suggests Libé.

So, what will replace these irrelevant monsters, if they really are past their sell-by date?

Well, suggests the Libération editorial, what about groups of concerned citizens who would come together with a view to debating public affairs, working out ways of promoting future projects, choosing individual members to take responsibility for special areas. And what might such groups be called? Well, political parties. What else?

By the way, Libé supports its "the party is dead" thesis with an opinion poll showing that nearly one-third of French voters don't feel close to any political brand currently on the market.

Enthusiasm, if that's the word, for the Socialists and the conservatives is equally limp at about 15 per cent, with the far-right Front National of Marine Le Pen the only organisation actually attracting new voters, accounting for 11 per cent of those questioned.

And then there's the Greeks, who took a further step towards the European exit on Thursday night by announcing that, surprise, they wouldn't be paying back monies owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), not yet anyway. Their audacity gets them off the Brussels Christmas card list and onto the Le Monde front page.

Sceptics would say that Athens has promised to pay back all its June obligations in one go, a perfectly legal proposition, with a precedent set in the 1980s by Zambia. But the seven-billion-dollar question remains: where is the money going to come from?

Instead of paying back last night's modest 300 million euros, the Greek government has decided to push the whole question back to the end of the month, at which point Athens will have to come up with 1.6 billion euros. Which brings us back to square one.

The problem is not that Greece will have to borrow the money to repay the IMF from the IMF, that's not even good for a tired smile any more. The real pinch is that the IMF wants the left-wing Syriza government to increase VAT rates, reduce pensions and wages, augment austerity as the price for a loan to pay back the loan. And that leaves the Greek head honcho, Alexis Tsipras, in a political stew: if he gives in to the bankers, he'll lose a lot of street cred with the voters. It's a tough call between bankruptcy and popular revolt.