French press review 2 August 2010

The French press unites in decrying French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s new war on crime. Le Figaro's headline sums it up: the right on the offensive, the left outraged. British bees and Billy the Kid also put in appearances.

Communist Humanité‘s headline is “the flouted Republic”. Having stigmatised the gens de voyage, or travellers, Sarkozy is now attacking the very foundations of citizenship, it says. In a speech at the end of last week, the president declared war on crime and threatened to strip criminals of their citizenship if they come from outside France.

This, says Humanité, amalgamates immigration and criminality. To underline this point, Humanité features the road sign for danger (a red triangle with an exclamation mark) hovering over the president’s head.

The headline inside is more ominous still: “the republic under threat by its president”.
Senator Nicole Borvo-Cohen-Seat says in an interview that Sarkozy is invoking the stripping of nationality in a way that has never been used except by the Vichy regime against the Jews. She says even if he doesn't make it explicit it is targeted at certain origins, people from the Maghreb and Africans are particularly under fire.

Left-leaning Libération goes along the same lines. It runs a cartoon of Sarkozy with an enormous truncheon and high heels peering menacingly from under a policeman's hat. It says it was a weekend of excess for the right. Its editorial says the security issue is a diversion strategy from the Bettencourt affair.

Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, has gone even further proposing (no joking, says Libération) to imprison irresponsible parents. It won't matter if the constitutional court doesn't pass the reforms. Sarkozy is trying to reoccupy a political terrain he has lost, but we should spare a thought for the Elysée and Labour Minister Eric Woerth, it finishes bitingly; perhaps he will at least pass some peaceful holidays.

Even right-leaning Le Figaro compares Hortefeux to the second blade on the razor. Its coverage is more objective; it predicts lots of lively polemic and short holidays for policemen.

Le Monde's editorial is entitled “a good day for the defence of liberty”. After the sound and fury over the weekend from the Elysée about delinquency, you can almost forget about Friday's good news when the constitutional court declared that French police custody practices are unconstitutional. It’s a pity that they went and spoilt it all with their incendiary speeches on national identity the very same day, Le Monde concludes.

Le Monde tells us that in Britain there is a new scheme of electronically tagging bees to try to work out why they’re dying. Some 16,000 bees will be equipped with a radio chip. Apple producers in Britain are already having to import bees. The scheme will costs 12 million euros over three years.

The centrist daily has a cartoon of an angry bee saying he’s going to the constitutional court about his civil liberties.

Talking of outlaws, is it time to pardon Billy the Kid? The governor of New Mexico is wondering, 129 years after Billy the Kid’s death, Le Figaro’s story of the day tells us. Some are shocked, especially the descendants of Sheriff Pat Garrett. The Kid boasted of having killed 21 people, though it was actually only nine. But the governor had promised to pardon him if he gave himself up. When he did, he was condemned to hang. He escaped, but was shot in the back a few months later by his old foe Garrett. One thing is exercising the governor: a promise is a promise

There’s a nice summer story in Le Monde about reading on the beach. In a project in Montpellier, they've built a straw hut on several beaches and filled it with books. You can borrow them for free without registering or paying. There’s only one rule: dry yourself before entering.

La Croix leads with fires in Russia. Forest fires have burned down whole villages across the country. Nearly 2,000 houses have been destroyed. The Catholic paper has employed the services of a doctor who explains how when it's hot you get hot. He does say one thing of interest: each person has a temperature at which they feel happy. In Finland people feel best when it’s 13 degrees centigrade, in Greece it’s 26.