French press review 16 July 2016

News of the political upheaval unfolding in Turkey and follow-ups on Thursday night's attack in Nice feature heavily in the French press this morning. 

Liberation is reporting that soldiers in Turkey attempted a coup on Friday evening, but that President Erdogan has said that the coup attempt is now "largely under control".

Martial law and a curfew have been declared, and all political parties have opposed the coup. According to the French left-wing paper, the Turkish army seized power around 10:30 pm last night.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, was calling for calm, saying that "security forces were doing all they can to resolve the situation."

Liberation reports that automatic gunfire was heard in the capital, Ankara, and the Turkish parliament was targetted by bombs.

In Istanbul, the bridges over the Bosphorus were closed and fighter jets flew over the city. Dozens of lives were lost, La Liberation reports, including at least 17 police officers.

Le Monde features an article on the truck driver who carried out Thursday night's attack in Nice, which left at least 84 people dead.

The attacker is named as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, a father and a husband, who was living in north Nice.

A search was conducted yesterday morning at his home, according to the report in the centrist paper.

Mohamed Louage-Boullel was "unknown to the intelligence services", according to the Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins. A heavy goods driver, he was given a suspended sentence in March following an altercation with a motorist, and was under judicial review.

The Minister of Justice, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, said that Louage-Boullel was handed a six months suspended sentence on March 24th by the Nice Criminal court for acts of violence during an altercation following a traffic accident committed with an improvised weapon.

However, Louage-Boullel "was never incarcerated and never was subject to any monitoring by the judicial authority at the time of the attack."

The aftermath of the Nice attack continues in reports published by Le Figaro.

The right-wing paper writes that many tourists have now left the French Riveria city and hotels are reporting numerous cancellations. Yesterday, the mood of Nice inhabitants and tourists oscillated between sadness, anger and fatalism.

Le Figaro quotes a couple from Nice, Yves and Suzie, who said that the evening of July 14 was a sparkling, joyous occasion following on from the euphoria of the Euro 2016 football tournament.

But, after Thursday's night of horror, it is like low season in the city, despite the palm trees soaring under a bright sky. Many shops are closed along the promenade that is usually swarming with people at this time of year.

Le Figaro desribes the impression left by the deserted streets as "gloomy" with police patrolling the city in all directions, blocking access to the two kilometre long crime scene.

The reporter from le Figaro says she met people in tears, like Susanna who was on her way to the nearest church to "pray for the victims and thank God that she was incredibly lucky to be alive."

The Catholic La Croix reports on Muslims praying for victims of the Nice attack at the large mosque at Narbonne along the French Riveria yesterday.

At a time when the sun burns against the white walls of the mosque, the faithful gathered the prayer room, just like every Friday.

La Croix reported that the attack in Nice was on everyone's lips.

"I thought about it all morning," says one worshipper.

"It is barbaric and cruel," says Mohamed El Aissi, the president of the Cultural and Educational Association of the Grand Mosque in Narbonne. "It is still early to decide what we will do. We strongly condemn this attack."

And the Communist paper, l'Humanitie, is warning that the Nice attack could provide the extreme right with a pretext to clarify its proposals, conflating immigration, terrorism and national identity.

On the far right, some voices are demanding "war" against terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamism, says the Communist paper.

This, it says, is definitely the case with National Front MEP, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who reportedly said that "the language of war is not enough, we must now deploy all means of war."

The militarization of society is incompatible with the French way of life, l'Humanitie says. How long will it last?