French press review 27 April 2013

An attack on German Chancellor Angela Merkel drawn up for François Hollande's Socialist Party and Qatar’s unquenchable appetite for France are among the big stories hitting the front pages this morning.

Le Figaro reports on a policy document to be submitted to the French Socialist Party’s leadership that criticises the austerity imposed on Europe by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and slams her "selfish intransigence".

It is tantamount to a declaration of war, says the right-wing newspaper. According to Le Figaro, the call for a democratic confrontation between Paris and Berlin is a smokescreen. The fact of the matter, it says, is that the Socialist-led government sees Germany as a scapegoat, because it has proved unable to find an efficient remedy to rising unemployment and the financial crisis ravaging the economy.

Le Figaro declared that it would not be surprised to see the president puff out his chest in front of Merkel, after proving unable to take on people like Left Front leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and National Assembly speaker Claude Bartolone.

Libération is disturbed by the influence the Gulf state of Qatar is allegedly exercising on French Islam. According to the left-leaning daily, Qatari tycoons with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood are using dirty tactics to extend their religious influence over a country that was once a Catholic bastion. The Qataris are banking on the expertise of Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan who is widely respected in France.

The French judges investigating the tax fraud scandal of ex-budget minister Jérome Cahuzac are on the track of more fraudsters, according to Le Monde, which has found out that several French clients hold secret accounts at Reyl Bank in Geneva.

Le Monde's editorial discusses the record unemployment figures released by France this week, jobseekers surging by 36, 900 in March to 3.224 million, beating a record set in 1997.

According to the paper, the figures are not surprising to any one, as this is the 23rd consecutive months of job losses in Europe’s second economy.

For the paper, unemployment has become life-crushing and morale-sapping for a growing number of French families. There are no signs that the situation will improve any time soon, says Le Monde, as everything is fuelling the crisis, from persisting economic stagnation to the drastic reduction in the number of temporary and part-time jobs.

Aujourd’hui en France has some good news coming from Renault, the French automaker announcing plans to produce 82,000 Nissan Micra cars from its plant in the Yvelines, outside Paris, starting in 2016.

Le Monde also examines moves by France at the United Nations as it prepares to pull out of Mali. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday congratulating France for its operations in the Sahel country and agreeing the deployment of 11,200 blue helmets there.

The citizens of Paris won’t like what their favourite newspaper is saying about them this morning. Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui en France has found out that tourists visiting the city are facing hard times.

The problem is not coming from pickpockets as some claim but from their not-quite-perfect hosts.

Parisians they say are arrogant, unhelpful and often discourteous to strangers. It’s a sign of the changing economic times, as struggling Parisians may be feeling uneasy rubbing shoulders with the free-spending visitors crowding their shops.