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French press review 28 April 2014

Popes, politics, pacts and problems make up this morning's not particularly appetising menu.

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Brussels has a problem. There is every possibility that groups broadly opposed to the idea of European Union will win 20 per cent of seats in next month's elections for the European Parliament. While there is no danger that the two dominant blocs, the Conservatives and the Socialist/Democrats, will lose their majority influence, they are going to have to listen more closely to the voices of the discontents.

The far right-wing is going to have unprecedented weight in the next European parliament. Here in France, Marine Le Pen's Front National is expected to collect more votes than the ruling Socialists, just slightly fewer than the main opposition conservative UMP party. When you add up similar far right scores in Austria, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Lithuania and Holland, you can see that the far right won't have any problem forming a parliamentary group.

That will give them the right to propose legislation, sit on committees, and get extra cash. They will certainly be able to slow down a democratic machine already legendary for its lumbering inefficiency.

The pact is a French political problem. You will know by now that the French National Assembly will tomorrow consider and vote on the proposals by Prime Minister Manuel Valls to save fifty billion euros, basically to finance presidential promises to the employers and satisfy the central bankers in Brussels.

The problem, as we've been saying for what seems like weeks, is that an awful lot of Socialist deputies are deeply unhappy about the details of some of the proposals - essentially insofar as the savings scheme will effect the less-well-off - and so feel obliged to abstain from tomorrow's vote.

According to left-wing Libération, as many a half the Socialist group could refuse their support for a key part of President Hollande's plan to get the nation working again, and reduce the national debt.

Tomorrow's vote is not going to bring the government down, whatever way the numbers go, but a clear split in Socialist ranks will give the opposition another field day, particularly welcome just four weeks ahead of European elections which are likely to be even more disastrous for the Socialists than the recent local polls.

Manuel Valls is meeting a small group of Socialist deputies this morning, in an effort to cobble together some kind of face-saving compromise. But the fundamental division between socialist and social democrats has been opened and is not going to go away.

And, as for the popes, who get pride of place in Le Monde and Catholic La Croix, there were no fewer than four of them involved in yesterday's celebrations of the Catholic Church's two latest saints. They are John XXXIII, the man credited with bringing the church into the 20th century with the Second Vatican Council in 1962, and John-Paul ll, the Polish pope, who played a part in the collapse of communism, and also tried to normalise relations between the church and the world's Jewish community. The other two were, of course, Benedict XVl and the man who replaced him, Francis.

Yesterday's sedate celebration of sainthood was attended by 800,000 pilgrims from all over the world, and was staged for less than the cost of the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, about 300,000 euros. That's because the church can count on lots of volunteers to do the organisation and help with security, and also because Roman taxpayers covered the real costs, estimated at nearly eight million euros for the day in police overtime, portable toilets, extra public transport.

The Eternal City is eternally in financial trouble, but the church is probably a decent investment: there wasn't a bed to be had in Rome this weekend, and 800,000 pilgrims will eat a lot of panini. Unlike football fans, they don't get drunk and fight in the streets.

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