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French press review 22 August 2013

The Syrian conflict once again makes the headlines of the French press today, as bashar al-Assad's government is accused of using chemical weapons, killing hundreds.

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The death toll is claimed to be as high as 1,300 as the Syrian government admits launching an offensive but denies using chemical weapons, explains right-wing daily Le Figaro, which headlines a “chemical massacre”.

The UN Security Council met last night at the request of several countries, including France and called for clarifications on the circumstances of the alleged gas attacks, without explicitly requiring an investigation.

The photos and videos currently circulating on the internet are a testament of the horrifying reality on the ground, Le Figaro says. Suffocating children with white saliva flowing from their mouths, convulsed babies with dilated pupils, teenagers with respiratory difficulties and lifeless bodies lying on the ground, bearing no trace of injury by conventional weapons - these are the classic symptoms of a nerve gas attack, the paper claims.

Left-wing Libération also headlines with the attack and the questions it raises, one of them being “the incomprehensible timing of the operation, upon the arrival of the UN inspectors, ordered by the Arab League, the UK and France".

The daily publishes some pictures taken in Damascus after the attack, pictures that tend to confirm the use of nerve gas on civilians, showing corpses of asphyxiated victims lying on the ground, with no apparent wounds or injuries.

“Will there be a before and an after the Damascus gas massacre?” wonders the daily. If confirmed, this massacre of unprecedented scale may well be a turning point in the two-year conflict, says the paper.

Back in France French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, or Maverick Valls as we have come to know him, makes the front pages of both Le Figaro and Libération.

Valls finds himself in a complicated position, as his statements on immigration and Islam have stirred up quite a controversy in the left-wing government, says Le Figaro. This is quite a buzz kill for President François Hollande, who wanted to show unity and optimism as his government begins a second year in power.

Libération, on the other, hands bluntly asks if Manuel Valls is actually still on the left, amid speculation about a  possible prime ministerial position in the future. In an interview with the paper, the minister explains that his political heritage lies in socialism but that his opinions on specific issues are his own. When critics accuse him of running a one-man show and being ubiquitous, he replies he actually feels he’s not doing enough.

Aujourd’hui en France also focuses on politics, as its headlines with Hollande's gamble  on growth and employment, that might actually be within reach.

“Could he win his bet?” headlines the paper, saying that Hollande has always displayed certainty that the rise of unemployment would be reveresed by the end of the year.

While many said his optimism was unrealistic, the main economic indicators now seem to show that the president’s plans might bear fruit, says the paper.

Aujourd’hui en France publishes a list of Hollande's objectives for 2013 and compares them with current economic and social trends to see which could be reached by the end of the year.

As it turns out, things might take a turn for the better, it concludes.

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