French press review 13 May 2014

Nigeria and Boko Haram, federalisation of Ukraine and Chinese policemen in Paris dominate the front page stories of French dailies.

Nigeria and Boko Haram make the front page of Libération, under a striking headline describing the Islamic insurgents, bluntly, as "Barbarians".

The left-leaning paper wonders if the belated involvement of experts and equipment from France, the United States, China, Israel and the United Kingdom will have much impact on a situation which is clearly controlled by Abubakar Shekau and his brothers in arms. The real problem, says Libé, is Nigeria, a failed state ravaged by corruption, with an inefficient army and incompetent police. That's exactly the sort of environment in which loonies like the ban-the-book boyohs can prosper. The price will be more deaths, more abductions, more suicide attacks.

It is extremely unlikely that Boko Haram will be part of the "Islamic enlightenment" hoped for by the Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a revolution marked by a sense of diversity and tolerance based on knowledge.

Under the headline "Putin's art of war wearies the West", Le Monde's main story suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to increase military pressure on Ukraine or any other former Soviet satellite, provided he achieves the federalisation of Ukraine. Le Monde says the Russian tactic of massing troops on sensitive borders has worked well so far, gaining Putin control of the Crimean peninsula and the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine. Economic realism will probably convince the Kremlin that enough is enough, for the moment anyway.

On inside pages, Libération reports that Paris will soon be equipped with uniformed Chinese police officers, whose job it will be to protect their countrypersons from local thieves, scoundrels and Boko Haram.

One and half million Chinese tourists visited France last year, spending an average of 1,500 euros. The government would like to see those figures tripled, but it's not a lot of use if most of the 1,500 euros goes to boost the pension plans of local pickpockets. Hence the arrival of the Peking police. The problem is that policing standards are somewhat variable between Paris and Beijing and the liberal use by members of the Gonganju of electric cattle prods and coshes will probably face some resistance from rights groups if used on the streets of the French capital in broad daylight.

And if the Chinese cops see, say, an American tourist being robbed, will they intervene to bludgeon the suspect with the enthusiasm normally reserved for human rights protestors in Tiananmen Square? And what if the French police decide to learn from their Asian colleagues that a swift tap of the Boko bludgeon is worth hours of painstaking interrogation?

Libération also quotes from the official guide intended to encourage "civilised tourism" by Chinese visitors to Paris. They are advised not to pick their noses in public and asked not to steal the lifebelts from aeroplanes. We wish the good lads of the Gonganju the best of luck.

Communist L'Humanité looks at German efforts to become less dependent on nuclear power for electricity production. Instead of investing in ecologically sound renewable sources of energy, the Germans are burning lignite and coal, suddenly good value on the European energy market. But all that smoke is not good for the globe. Grim.