French Press Review 28 July 2018

There's so much happening here in France that the papers are spoiled for choice this morning.

Right-wing Le Figaro manages to shoe-horn into its front page all the day's top stories.

They include: worries about the slow growth of the French economy; travel woes for holidaymakers preparing for the August mass exodus from Paris after an electrical fire in the suburbs paralysed traffic at Montparnasse train station; news that opposition parties of very different stripes in the National Assembly are united in pressing for a vote of no confidence in the government; and, inevitably, in recent days, a reflection on the fall-out from so-called Benallagate, the alleged cover up by the Elysee of an incident in which one of President Emmanuel Macron's bodyguards beat up May Day demonstrators.

Le Figaro's front page editorial is headlined "The end of a mirage," and it deserves to be quoted at length.

"At the end of July, troubles multiply for the head of state and his government," it says. "There is the Benalla affair, which is not calming down, and above all a flurry of bad economic news.

"Who did not secretly hope, after a euphoric end of year in 2017, that our country had finally driven the out the demons and turned its back on decline?"

In reality, the paper laments there "has been no miracle... The ills that have plagued France for a long time - lack of competitiveness, rigidity of all kinds - have not disappeared.

"So what to do? Pursue and even accelerate reforms... Emmanuel Macron must stay the course, including in bad weather. After all, a leader is made to lead."

Centrist paper Le Monde carries a detailed report on the decision by three left-wing parties in the National Assembly to bury their ideological hatchets and jointly file a motion of no confidence in the Macron government. This comes hard on the heels of a similar motion filed by the centre-right Republicans party.

That said, the paper believes the outcome is a foregone conclusion. To be adopted, a vote of censure must be approved by at least a majority of the elected members of the Assembly; that's to say 289 of them. However, deputies of the ruling Republic on the Move party have an absolute majority, with 312 elected members.

Left-leaning Libération is under no illusions that the routinely squabbling left-wing parties have resolved their difference. However, it is heartened by the collaboration, however brief. The paper quotes the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure who says: "The opposition knows the government will not fall. (But) a motion of censure forces a government to be held accountable."

Popular daily Le Parisien gives front page coverage to yesterday's fire in Issy-les-Moulineaux, just a stone's throw from our studios near the river Seine.

As befits a tabloid, its reporting is more vivid than the posh papers. "Stifling heat, crying infants and thousands of travellers waiting. The Montparnasse station, already affected by two giant failures in 2017, turned into a giant sit-in this Friday, with traffic completely paralysed on this day of mass departure. Parisians routinely flee the city in August.

"From 11.30am, no train could leave for Brittany, the Loire, Bordeaux or Basque Country. The halls were crowded with people and the heat was stifling," le Parisien reports.

"'What a mess,' sighed one woman, plunging her face in her hands."

What a mess indeed. Like much else at present, I'm sorry to say.