French press review 4 February 2017

Th battle to take down Les Republicains’ candidate Francois Fillon remains the focus in all the papers today.

Le Monde headlines with “the Battle of Plan Bs” has started. With Alain Juppé already saying he is not interested in becoming a Plan B, the party has to turn, rather quickly, to alternatives. 

And Le Monde says the process is painful and could finally drain right wing party. 

The paper says it is a choice between the lesser of two evils. While Francois Fillon still thinks he can pull through and remain the best candidate, others within the party are worried. A lot.

But the current status quo implies that literally no one is ready to take over such challenge. Some argue that Juppé is the natural heir - but he won’t have it unless his ego is flattered by being officially “dubbed” Fillon’s successor by Fillon himself. We won't be holding our breathe then.

But then again, for Nicolas Sarkozy’s followers, the only heir would be Francois Baroin - the old time rival of Alain Juppé, who knows that if the latter becomes the candidate, he has no chance of moving his career forward.

The other Plan B talked about is Gerard Larcher, who is closer to Fillon himself. Names, names, names for now, but the article concludes by paraphrasing Churchill  -  Fillon remains the worst candidate, except for all others. 

Libération headlines with “Fillon - give up already” and the paper says that since he is being disqualified - fast - he needs to give up running for president.

The paper argues that he has been attacked on what exactly made him credible in the first place - his integrity and righteousness in politics.

Even the editorial says that there is no joy to get out of this because it simply is a travesty of democracy.

And, like Le Monde, it turns to who could possibly replace Fillon now at such short notice. They say there are plenty more fish in the sea though. Well, they say they thought of a few at least could take over Fillon’s place.

First off, Alain Juppé, who, the paper says, might be one of the rare ones to actually be able to prevent the sinking of this ship, but needs  the will to do so.

Laurent Wauquiez, who is willing to say anything to get elected, which probably is one of the reasons why not everyone likes him.

Libération wonders how Gerard Larcher's name came up at all. Xavier Bertrand, who plays ito the fact that he could be the regular man-next-door, but lacks popularity; Francois Baroin, the young one, who could maybe take on Emmanuel Macron…

Also in the running, women such as Rachida Dati, or Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, but the paper says both of them did not make many friends.

Le Figaro headlines with Macron and Le Pen who want to take advantage of the ongoing crisis within the right wing party - well, isn’t that the whole point of politics?

And since they are both holding meetings in Lyon over the weekend, they intend to use Fillon’s “difficulties” as the paper puts it, to try and rally more voters.

Le Figaro argues that Macron is riding the wave of Fillon's folly and if within his En Marche! movement they do not want to say Fillon has opened up a can of worms, they can hardly disguise their satisfaction regarding Fillon’s… situation.

The paper seems to say the final “match” will be between Macron and far right leader Marine Le Pen, especially as Fillon’s state of affairs seems to be giving the Front National hopes to reach the second round quite easily.

And while Macron and Le Pen literally disagree on everything, they do, though, bet on the very same thing: the death of the two-party system.

Libération points out that not only are these two holding meetings in Lyon, but far-left Jean Luc Mélenchon will also be there.

Which is sort of the super-meeting of the anti-system candidates. It adds that  they are all there to get more ammunition for the upcoming presidential battle for better or for worse.