French press review 4 June 2016

The flood waters threatening Paris appear to have stopped rising. The World Health Organisation is to take another look at the wisdom of holding the Summer Olympics in the capital of a country with 1.5 million sufferers from the Zika virus. And the French prime minister continues to talk tough to trade union protestors who don't like the country's new labour laws.

DR

Le Monde's website reports that the River Seine stabilised last night at a 30-year high of 6.9 metres above its normal level. The French capital, along with 12 departments, remains on orange alert, the second highest crisis reaction, with museum, metros and several major roads still closed.

Water levels are expected to remain practically stationary over the weekend, with the floods starting to recede early next week.

Don't blame global warming, not yet anyway

Le Figaro also gives front-page prominence to the flooding, noting that it would be unwise to blame global warming for the current crisis.

This flood is certainly unusual, both in the quantity of water and the timing, most Paris flooding in the past having been associated with the melting of winter snows. But there have been far worse disasters for Paris in the past, notably the 1910 flood, and climate change is a long-term question, not to be answered one way or the other by a single event, however dramatic.

We can be suspicious, say the experts interviewed by Le Figaro, but it could all be a matter of bad luck.

Olympic Games and the shadow of the Zika virus

Le Monde reports on efforts by the World Health Organisation to evaluate the real health risks involved in running the Summer Olympics in the Brazillian city of Rio de Janeiro, given that one and a half million Brazillians are suffering from the zika virus.

A member of the US Senate had asked the WHO for a formal analysis of the risks involved.

Health specialists have already made four separate trips to Brazil to collect first-hand information. Now there's to be a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee.

The World Health Organisation has already rejected an appeal by 150 scientists, calling for the games to postponed or moved, on the basis that neither action would have a significant impact on the spread of the virus.

Valls is not for turning, not yet anyway

Le Figaro's print edition says Prime Minister Manuel Valls is determined to bring the CGT trade union group to its knees in the current wrestling match over labour law reform.

Speaking yesterday in Athens, Valls said he had no intention of giving ground on the reforms, defending the underlying philosophy which is to create jobs by making it easier to sack people.

Le Figaro's editorial is scathing. It's good to see the prime minister stand up to the union thugs, says the conservative daily, especially to defend a law already so truncated and compromised as to be virtually meaningless.

But the prime ministerial determination is a posture, it claims. Valls has already given in so many times on so many crucial issues that his current solidity is suspect.

The CGT union which has spearheaded the revolt has no place in a modern democracy says Le Figaro. A tiny minority of cossetted trade unionist thugs have made life virtually impossible for the ordinary French worker, paralysing public transport, blocking refineries, cutting electricity, according to the right-wing paper. This is not a strike, says Le Figaro, it is vandalism!

Let there be light!

Catholic La Croix notes that two-thirds of all Africans still do not have access to electricity. Mercifully, new technologies and renewable energy are going to see that situation change rapidly. And several small-scale French manufacturers of solar panels are at the forefront of this quiet revolution.

All that's missing is the money, between 10 and 20 billion euros, depending on the technological model chosen.

The Cold War starts to heat up again

And left-leaning Libération gives pride of place to the "new Cold War" between the old enemies, Moscow and Washington.

The Ukraine crisis and divergences over Syria have emphasised the degree of mutual incomprehension. Recently we have seen missile batteries being installed in Romania, military exercises in Estonia and muscle-flexing in the Baltic, none of them likely to lead to peace in our time.

This new Cold War is different from the old one because the world is now a lot more complex, notably because of the emergence of China as a major player. The situation in the Middle East doesn't help either. And if Donald Trump gets to be president of the United States, says Libé, the Cold War could heat up dramatically.