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French press review 19 August 2017

Barcelona attack unveils dimension of terrorism threat facing Europe, marks turning point in psychological war between ISIS and the free world.

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Learning to live with the terrorist scare is the preocupation of commentators this Saturday, as they reflect on last Thursday’s attacks in Barcelona where young Jihadists rammed vehicles into pedestrians, killing 14 people and injuring 126 others..

Le Parisien says it is distressing to hear Spanish police speak of up to 12 terrorists who were reportedly planning an even bigger assaults, than the deadly car rampages.

According to the publication the ages of the three terrorists shot dead in Cambrils are equally shocking. They were aged 17, 18 and 24 while a 22 year-old is believed to be the driver who rammed the van on pedestrians in Barcelona before fleeing.

For Le Monde, it will take closer coordination among the security services of the global anti-terrorism coalition  with Europe on the front line, to clamp down on the new Jihadi networks.

For the publication in the face of severe military defeat inflicted on the Islamic State armed Group in Iraq and Syria, over the past months, terrorists are likely to act in greater desperation with a modus operandi intended to spread their “blood-letting ideology” where ever they can.

Libération for its part says ISIS is turning to blind violence against civilians, with the hope of destabilizing the Western democracies which plotted its downfall.

Libé recommends a stoic calm acorfss democratic institutions and the western way of life as the best strategy to expose the failures of terror, not the so-called “superfluous sabre rattling of French lawmaker Eric Ciotti branded by the paper as the braggart of the French Riviera.

For its part, Le Figaro classifies terrorism and uncontrolled immigration as two inseparable challenges. But the right-wing publication also points to the EU's impotency on the both fronts, and its members’ inability to formulate a new common border policy.

According to Le Figaro, instead of confusing themselves with rhetoric about protecting human rights and resolving aspects of the problem in specific member states, Europe ought to show a greater sense of purpose by equipping itself with the judicial arsenal and policing equipment needed to win the war.

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