French press review 11 April 2014

The French press welcomes the unanimous UN Security Council vote to send 12,000 UN peacekeepers to the Central African Republic (CAR), where violence between Christians and Muslims has triggered fears of genocide.

Le Figaro says the Minusca force due to take over from the African mission on 15 September will actually be made up of 11,800 blue helmets while the rest will be  civilian experts.

The right-wing paper analyses the complex mission awaiting the peacekeepers. This includes reassuring Bangui’s terrified Muslim community in the PK12 neighbourhood, who are looking for a safe corridor to flee the country.

Libération managed to reach the ex-mining town of Boda, 200 kilometres west of Bangui, where some 14,000 Muslims who have dug themselves in in one part of the enclave to ward off reported attacks by the predominantly Christian anti-balaka militia.

La Croix reports that many Muslims have already fled the country. It points out that at the start of the conflict about a year ago 15 per cent of the CAR’s total population was made up of Muslims. Now they represent just two per cent, according to the Catholic newspaper.

The ghost campaign of incumbent Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika is described in Friday’s Le Monde as the country prepares for presidential elections this month. The paper reports that his absence from the campaign trail is creating tensions through the country ahead of the high-risk 17 April ballot.

Libération examines the austerity policies laid out by new French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, adding that there are other options the government can take to resolve the economic crisis facing the country. This is as the members of the radical left prepare to stage a protest march in Paris on Saturday to press President François Hollande to change political direction.

According to the paper, the plan to raise 40 billion euros for Hollande’s Responsibility Pact by 2017, while offering just five billion in tax breaks and incentives for struggling families, is a recipe for social unrest. It questions the rationale of fighting to meet the EU dogma on balanced budgets at a time of spiralling unemployment and economic decline. President François Hollande, it warns, faces serious short-term political risks if he turns his back on an important portion of his left-leaning electorate.

Stop bailing out banks and start rescuing humans, bellows L’Humanité, as it campaigns for a massive turnout at the national protest in Paris on 12 April. For the Communist Party daily, the demonstration is not just against the austerity policies of the government but also a clamour for an equitable sharing of national wealth.

Le Figaro believes Hollande has already squandered the opportunity offered by this cabinet reshuffle to change political course after he made some controversial appointments. The right-wing newspaper points to the “exfiltration” of Socialist Party chief Harlem Désir. He becomes European affairs minister, despite being blamed of causing the ruling party’s worst electoral defeat since 1983.

According to Le Figaro, some of the sniggering about Désir’s fate comes from inside his own party, which has sent ex-UMP ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet giggling about “an insult to Europe”. Le Figaro also reports that political tongues are also wagging: about  the possibility of former Dominique Strauss-Kahn aide Christophe Cambadélis being parachuted in as the Socialist Party’s new chief.

And Aujourd’hui en France urges anyone looking to buy a luxury home in New York to call the French embassy at the United Nations. The paper reports that the 700-square-metre, 18-room duplex, which once belonged to Jacqueline Kennedy’s grandfather, is up for grabs for a meagre 35 million euros.

The newspaper says the 1929 property badly needs to be renovated, on top of the 17,500 euros being spent every month to make the residence a worthy home for its UN envoy. It found out that France has set strict rules for potential buyers. They must be millionaires with the capacity to cough up 72 million euros and show proof of a strong capacity to live a discreet life.