French press review 11 July 2016

There's a lot about failure and frustration on this morning's French front pages. They're talking about a football match.

You'd think there'd been a death in the family . . .

"The dream comes crashing down" says Le Figaro.

"Blues for Les Bleus" according to Libération.

"Flattened" reads the main headline in sports daily L'Equipe, the paper which was "Ecstatic" just three mornings ago after the semi-final victory against Germany.

We are, of course, talking football and the defeat by Portugal of the French national team by one goal to nil in extra time in last night's Euro 2016 final.

Something to celebrate

At least the Communist Party's L'Humanité manages to keep things in perspective, with a headline mischievously repeating the title of Valérie Trierweiler's book about life as François Hollande's girlfriend, written after she was dumped. "Thank You for This Moment," proclaims the front page of the daily, reminding the disappointed nation that we have lived a month-long footballing festival, with plenty of drama, some good moments, none of the terrorist horror predicted by those who wanted the competition cancelled or postponed. And if, sadly, the French failed to crown a remarkable campaign with victory in the final, they have at least, and at last, managed to forge a national team worthy of the name. That's something to celebrate.

Dallas killings revive US race debate

Le Monde, which went to press before a ball was kicked in last night's Euro final, looks at the impact of Thursday's shootings of police officers in Dallas on race relations in contemporary America.

The centrist paper notes that US Attorny General Loretta Lynch has called for calm at the same time as the front page of the tabloid New York Post announces the outbreak of "Civil War".

While the US presidential campaign was temporarily suspended, the front-runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, were both out to make political capital from the tragic violence. While the Republican Trump predictably called for efforts to reestablish law and order; his Democrat opponent Clinton was more inclined to talk about reconciliation.

Most serious analysts seem to agree that a huge amount of work remains to be done to establish racial harmony in the United States.

Brexit from a Central Bank perspective

They don't bother with football on the front page of Catholic La Croix. Instead they continue to look at the implications of the Brexit vote, the British referendum in which a majority of Her Majesty's subjects told Europe to sod off.

The Catholic paper asks François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Banque de France, what he thinks about the whole business.

Basically, Frank from the Bank thinks speed is of the essential, since investors are scared by uncertainty and a lengthy divorce is sure to generate more of that very thing.

The boss of the French central bank also insists that the European social model can still work and must be maintained unless we want public services and social inequalities to reach the abysmal levels current in the United States. But, he says, there's no legitimate reason why similar social services cost the French 10 points more of Gross Domestic Product than our neighbours are paying.

The Old Continent lives up to its name

In a separate story La Croix also notes the sad and troublesome fact that, taking Europe as a whole, the Old Continent saw more deaths than births last year. Under such conditions, which simply confirm a long-term decline of the European birth-rate, immigrants are going to play a vital role in Europe's economic and social future.