French press review 19 July 2017

Is France wise to adopt an anti-terrorist law to replace the long succession of states of emergency? What has US President Donald Trump done in his first six months in office? And why are women's rights activists angry with French President Emmanuel Macron?

The French anti-terrorist law which is intended to replace the current state of emergency when that comes to an end on 1 November was yesterday passed by the Senate, where the right-wing Republicans and centrists hold a majority.

Socialist and Communist senators voted against adopting the new law.

Centrist daily Le Monde reminds readers that Amnesty International, the Human Rights League and the French judges' union have criticised several provisions of the legislation as giving the authorities too much latitude when dealing with terrorist suspects.

About 100 people protested outside the Senate building in Paris yesterday during the debate, claiming that the new provisions will turn France into a police state.

Interior Minister Gérard Collomb says the country has to end the succession of states of emergency, which have been maintained since November 2015 but can do so only if the law is adapted to help in the fight against terrorism.

Legal professionals have warned that the proposed law will seriously undermine civil and individual liberties, creating what they call "a society of suspicion". They are particularly worried by provisions which, instead of legislating for crimes actually committed, will make individuals liable before the law for crimes they might commit.

The debate in the lower house will take place in October.

Trump, chaos and ruins

Right-wing Le Figaro looks back over the first six months of Donald Trump's US presidency and sees a landscape of chaos and ruins.

He has made no significant legislative changes of his own, says Le Figaro, but Trump has tried to demolish the heritage of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The right-wing French daily says the American leader still has enthusiastic supporters but notes that quite a few have had more than enough.

Le Figaro calls Trump the Head of Demolition, echoing a US lobbyist who says the new president is the chief troublemaker in a troubled age.

Ordinary people are finding it hard to understand where the country is going, in the face of presidential decrees, congressional blocking, contradictory statements and a tidal wave of Twitter messages, not all of them written in a language used by anyone other than Donald Trump.

The current American president has served 180 days and will stay in office for a further 1,280.

Are women getting a raw deal from President Macron?

Libération wonders if the junior ministry for womens' rights is really going to see its budget reduced by 25 percent.

What is clear is that the equality ministry is not going to escape the cuts being inflicted across the board by the good people at public accounts, who have been told by President Emmanuel Macron to shave gazillions of euros off government spending.

Marlène Schiappa, the junior minister looking after sexual equality, has described claims in the press that she'll loose a quarter of her spending power as fake news. But angry feminist groups say they got their information from an inside source and are sticking to their guns.

The Macron ministry with the weakest budget, originally 27 million euros, will, if the press leaks turn out to be more or less correct, have to get by on 21 million. And that, says Libé, will have a direct, negative impact on the women's rights service, run by the equality minister.

Worse, several groups have seen the government promise that there will be no cuts to services dealing with the victims of sexist or sexual violence, as an attempt to divide the women's movement.

Neither the Family Planning Association nor the National Women's Federation have received the first instalment of their annual grants, normally paid in January. The Association Against Violence against Women is surviving on a bank overdraft because a new deal with the government has not been signed.

Everyone says they are used to delays. But the crucial question is whether they get less than before or anything at all in the current climate of government cost-cutting.