French press review 30 August 2014

The national dailies are all about the ruling Socialist party’s summer workshop which opens in La Rochelle today.

Libération says the rhetoric and posture of the likes of ousted Finance Minister Arnaud Montebourg even though they don’t incarnate a revolutionary faction, have collided with government action, sparking a major crisis within the cabinet that has left the ruling party on the brink of breaking up.

For Libé the fight between socialist pragmatist and pro-European reformists, nourished by socialist utopia and outdated ideologies is the same confrontation which has characterized left-wing politics in France for more than a century.

The party has simply lost a sense of direction, writes Le Parisien /Aujourdhui en France.

Le Figaro describes the gathering the hour of reckoning for the beleaguered movement pointing out that the leadership of the party has launched a desperate campaign to avoid a confrontation which will be disastrous to its image.

Le Figaro also takes up the crisis in Ukraine as Russian President Vladmir Putin tightens his grip around eastern Ukraine. The right-wing paper argues that while Moscow is denying the presence of its troops in Ukrainian territory, Putin wasted no time to welcome the military successes scored by the pro-Russian separatists and is determined as ever to force Kiev to negotiate with the rebels on the status of the disputed eastern Ukrainian region.

Le Monde says it is western impotence that has allowed Russia to intervene in Ukraine.

And this weekend’s issue of Libération dives into the soup of creativity which has become the symbol of Haiti’s reconstruction after the 15-year red terror reign of dictator Jean Claude Duvalier nicknamed Baby Doc marked by the killing and torture of thousands of opposition members and a mass exodus from the country and the 2010 earthquake which killed 316,000 people razing the capital Port au Prince to the ground.

According to Libé, the new breed of writers are becoming weapons of economic revival and a national cement capable of healing the wounds of the battered Island nation where half of the population cannot read nor write.

And L’Equipe looks forward to the France’s national basketball team as they begin their first match in the 2014 world cup in Spain tonight. They are up against Brazil and the Sports daily says it’s a major challenge since the reigning European champions who will be without their superstar playmaker Tony Parker are counting on his fellow NBA playmaker Nicolas Batum to do get into winning ways.