French press review 27 August 2014

The French papers look rather grey this morning, with all their front pages running pictures of the new men and women in suits at the helm of the government.

Le Figaro welcomes the changes made to cabinet, saying it has brought a little clarity to President François Hollande's team: his ministers will consistently back him and this is what he needs if he's going to pull France out of the quagmire.

But the conservative paper is all doom and gloom, saying his new team may be looking more streamlined but it's unlikely they'll be able to do much at all, unless they lop off state expenses that are sucking the country dry.

Libération says there's a light at the end of the tunnel - Prime Minister Manuel Valls has chosen close allies to back up his hard line. These players are new, young and ambitious but also "realistic" in terms of France's economic future. Libé says Hollande still has three years in power, which politically speaking can be a very long time. Especially if he continues to push through measures that are widely unpopular.

So the leftie daily admits the new cabinet is a competent team but wonders if further austerity won't just serve to set the country back.

Further to the left, L'Humanité wonders the same thing and has come to the conclusion that yes, Hollande is just shooting himself in the foot.

The paper calls the new ministers mercenaries of austerity, suggesting they've been hired to do the dirty work of bringing the country to its knees. L'Huma says the new commando is a sign that the Socialist Party is under radical strain. The daily comments on something the PM said earlier this summer: "The word 'socialist' no longer means anything." It's true, says L'Huma: the government's economy package, the so-called Responsibility Pact, defends right-wing values and does nothing for the left.

La Croix comments that if anything can be said of the new cabinet it's that it's homogenous. And this, it warns, makes it fragile. The Catholic paper does welcome the fact that Justice Minister Christiane Taubira as well as the newly appointed education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem are both known for their commitment to gender equality and well-liked by the public.

Le Monde spoke to the head of the French investment bank Axa, who says that the government's promises are all very well but it's time to see them put into action. Hollande will be speaking to the country's largest employers' union today. The CEO says France is currently like a drunk who has polished off all the wine and finds it unfair that the supply has been cut off.

Libé has a spread on the death of the homeless in France.

An NGO has for years tried to collect data on the number of homeless people who die on the street - they estimated the toll for 2013 to be around 400.

The absence of official data has pushed a team of expert epidemiologists to try to do the job themselves. The number of homeless has jumped by 50 per cent in recent years and, according to the research team, the death toll is more likely to be around 4,000-9,000 per year. Libé says this is a public health issue and statistics are necessary to address it.

In its science supplement today Le Monde has the story on how cavemen in Europe enjoyed a traditional French speciality: escargots (snails). This is what researchers found after poring over fossils at archaeological sites in northern Spain. They found that Neanderthals ate roasted snails some 30,000 years ago. So the French may take comfort that their eating habits haven't changed since prehistoric times.

La Croix reports on the world equestrian games which kicked off two days ago in Normandy. Jockeys are showing off their reining skills, a kind of Western-style horse-back riding involving abrupt braking and speeding up. The leaders at this are, of course, North Americans but the Catholic daily says French cowboys aren't far behind.

Finally, some technicalities on being a boy in France. A doctor in Libération speaks up against the French practice of medically pulling young boys' foreskins back for the first time.

Though this is traditionally done in hospitals, many French parents are uncomfortable with the practice according to the paper. And Libé has an interview with a medic who says boys can deal with the issue on their own... so parents should encourage their kids to play around with their willies.... instead of taking them to the doctor.