French press review 2 June 2014

Mehdi Nemmouche and François Hollande share this morning's front pages . . .

Nemmouche is the Frenchman suspected of having murdered three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last month. Apart from the terrible human tragedy, the problem is that Nemmouche was known to the French anti-terrorist services, he having spent several months as a rebel fighter in Syria. But the authorities' track of him revives bad memories of Mohamed Merah, who murdered seven people in the southern French cities of Toulouse and Montauban in March, 2012, his passage to crime having followed a similar itinerary.

Nemmouche was imprisoned on five separate occasions for minor crimes, allegedly becoming involved in radical islam during his most recent three-year stay in jail. Three weeks after his release, he left for Syria where he vanished from view until he was spotted at Germany's Frankfurt airport in March. He was arrested during a routine police check in the southern French city of Marseille on Saturday.

Right-wing Le Figaro's editorial is unflinching. The return of holy warriors from Syria is now a "scourge", and the authorities can not afford to wait for another horrible murder before taking action. That action must, says the conservative paper, be repressive, involving strict police and judicial controls of all those who return to France after spending time in jihadi groups. Their passports should be withdrawn, they should be subject to house-arrest and those not of French origin should be expelled. If these suggestions sound like an attack on personal liberty, so be it, says Le Figaro. What counts more, wonders the conservative daily, liberal hot air about individual freedom or safety for innocent people? The fanatics threaten liberty far more dangerously than would a much-needed tightening of the judicial system.

Unfortunately, says Le Figaro, the penal reforms proposed by Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, and due to be debated this very week, run counter to that crying necessity.

Left-wing Libération poses the practical question, without accepting that all French nationals who return from Syria are necessarily dangerous criminals. As always in these tragic situations, the line between security and democracy is a fine one. Libé suggests that the current legal arsenal, intelligently used, is more than adequate to deal with the potential threat posed by the estimated 300 French nationals currently fighting on the rebel side in Syria.

It is perhaps worth noting that the maligned Taubira proposals include numerous efforts to keep minor criminals out of prison, a reform which, has it been put in place by an earlier administration, might have made the radicalisation of Merah and Nemmouche less inevitable.

As for François Hollande, he's now a problem for the Socialist majority, many of whom wonder if he's the best man to represent the party in the 2017 presidential battle.

Libération has the president on its front page, looking like he's just lost his car keys, and asking "where's the nearest exit?" The left-wing daily says the discontent of many parliamentary Socialists with their weak leader could result in open revolt. Hollande is to meet the Socialist MPs later this month to assess the damage.