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Press Review

French weekly magazine review 24 July 2016

In the continuing analysis by French current affairs weeklies of the Bastille Day attack in Nice, in which 84 people died, all call on countless numbers of experts to probe, criticise and dissect the Daesh-claimed incident.

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Some powerful and troubling photojournalism accompanies the provocative coverage. Secular France is declared Daesh's enemy No.1 amid a spate of "copycat terrorism" - as government security measures come under fire.

Starting with the centrist-with-bite Marianne which asks on its cover “Why do they detest France?” The message - sprawled across the Tricolour flag - is perhaps more a statement - a determined Gallic retort - than the somewhat self-flagellating message it sounds.

Islamists says Marianne hate France - because of its core values - and the proliferation of attacks on French soil show France has become the main Western target for Daesh because of its secularism, integration and gender equality.

“These are values that Islamists abhor,” the magazine states, “And we will not give in on anything!”

Secular France is the enemy

"They fear that Islam is being secularised because of its contact with France" - adds the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal. What they fear profoundly, he says “is an ungodly modernization of religion, in contact with a secular and welcoming France.”

Right-wing L'Express turns its gaze to the government in the wake of the attack. Its cover features a hard hitting photo of President of François Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Vals, and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve - in concertinaed profile shot - with the turning-up-the-heat charge - “Are they up to it?"

The other half of the question - “Confronted with terrorism” - is concealed somewhat by the forthright interrogation of whether the socialist government’s supreme political trio are capable of dealing with the situation at hand - the greater implication being can they be counted on to govern the country at all?

Government shortfalls on security

L’Express spotlights the biting criticism of government inaction over security issues by Alain Juppé, the favourite to become the presidential candidate for the conservative Les Republicains party.

“If all means were taken, the tragedy would not have occurred," Juppé said last week, sparking fiery debate over the anti-terrorist failings of the state.

The "mayor of Bordeaux set the tone” the magazine claims - by tapping in on public feeling and anger - and thus opening up the way for louder censure of the current administration.

For the centre-left L’Obs, however, Alain Juppé spoke out because he "felt an opposition leader should not be content to formulate proposals for the future, but must also express the feelings of the people - namely anger - to show that he understands them.”

“Because of the attacks and the unprecedented weakening of François Hollande, the climate is ripe for a return of authority,” the report continues. Authority is a leadership quality that was first attributed to Nicolas Sarkozy. “So there’s no question then” the magazine prods, of Juppé "leaving the way clear for his rival”.

“Think to After” L’Obs implores on its cover of a blood-pink tainted Mediterranean sky - evoking both the impossibility of life ahead for those involved in the tragedy - and the urgent need to move on and find solutions to the terrorist threat.

The cover shot features a typical Nice public bench covered in garlands and just one lone observer - perhaps a family member of a victim - looking out to sea.

Fast-tracked radicalisation

L'Obs goes on to report that "since the attacks of January 2015 and particularly since those of 13 November, the French intelligence services have prepared themselves to deal with a terrorist attack on a larger scale." The spectre of a September 11 in Europe is even feared. With Daesh, a new kind of jihadist has emerged - that of “rapidly radicalised” individuals who often use the internet to sign up.

A theme continued in Le Point in a story which talks of the “black pedagogy of low-cost terrorism” - and of “the new face of jihadism”. Like its confreres the conservative magazine portrays Nice as a “cradle of jihadism”.

Copycat terrorist attacks

The sociologist Gérald Bronner - a specialist in extreme thought - talks of the “Werther effect” to describe mimetic terrorist attacks. Borrowing from Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, he evokes the threat of “copycat terrorism” - in place of copycat suicides - now confronting France.
 

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