French press review 27 February 2016

It's all about ongoing crisis in this morning's French press review. Libération and Le Figaro are both headlining on French farmers, while an editorial in Le Monde takes a dramatic look at the current EU migration crisis.

DR

Le Figaro headlines on the ongoing farming crisis in France.

Farmers have been protesting for weeks now against low prices for milk and meat, but if Le Figaro is talking about the subject, it's because the Paris International Agricultural Show starts today.

The paper devotes six pages to the subject and has an article explaining the reasons of "the decline of the French agriculture sector". "In just 15 years, France went from second to fifht place in terms of exports" says Le Figaro.

So what, and who's to blame for this?

One issue is the lack of investment explains the daily. Another is of course the lack of competitivity of the French farmers against other European countries such as Poland or Germany.

There's also way too many rules for farmers to comply with argues the paper. Finally, there's one that might sound surprising: the consequences Russian embargo on European food imports.

Libération also devotes its front page to farmers and has a few articles on the topic, but there's one in particular that's interesting.

The left-wing paper makes a few suggestions on how to solve the current crisis.

The first thing that should be done is to reduce the size of farms and to put an end to the intensive farming model. Instead, the idea should be to produce less, but better quality products - "going organic pays a lot better" explains the newspaper.

The daily also thinks farmers, especially milk producers, should rely less on exporting their products and more on the French market.

Just like Le Figaro, Libé argues that French farmers will never be able to compete against their Polish or German competitors.

Le Monde also has an editorial on the ongoing European migration crisis...

The center-left leaning paper must be traumatised by what's happing inside of the European Union... that would explain why its editorial is so dramatic.

"Under the impact of the wave of migrants, Europe is falling apart, disintegrating, deconstructing itself" writes Le Monde, which think that Historians will remember 2016 as the year the EU ceased to exist.

What's wrong then? Well, everything, because European countries "don't know how to talk to each other anymore".

"The humanitarian tragedy has politically divided European nations" it explains.

But with countries like Austria or Hungary refusing to implement decisions taken by the 28 member states, it's the law that's being disrepected explains Le Monde.

Austria last week decided to introduce a daily cap of 80 asylum applications and to let only 3,200 migrants transit the country each day, without notifying the European Comission beforehand.

All of this "is simply an addition of national reflexes" that "confrontational and quarrelsome" says Le Monde.

"Just like before the creation of the EU"... and the second world war it concludes.