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French press review 27 November 2015

Today France is to pay its respects to the 130 people who died in the Friday 13 terrorist attacks. Several of the daily newspapers do no less. Others give the front-page honours to the United Nations climate conference, due to open in Paris this weekend.

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The front page of Le Figaro is dominated by the red, white and blue of the French flag, and a call for determined action against those who, according to the paper, in attacking bars, restaurants and a concert venue in Paris, menace no less than the whole of Western civilisation, a civilisation considered contrary to the barbaric blindness of a few fanatics.

Libération soberly publishes the names and ages of the victims on its front page, suggesting that not all the bereaved families will welcome today's remembrance ceremony in Paris, some feeling that their private grief is being officially rerouted to serve political ends.

The main headline in centrist daily Le Monde says Europe is reacting to the Paris attacks by trying to close the doors against refugees.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has called on Europe to welcome fewer migrants. Sweden has decided to toughen its policy on asylum seekers. All this because it is clear that at least two of the Paris attackers made their way to the French capital from Syria, invisible in the mass of the 800,000 refugees from the Middle East who have arrived in Europe this year.

Le Monde says the security concern is real and understandable. But the plight of the refugees is no less real and should not be lost sight of as Europe tries to protect itself from the dangerous consequences of its open-borders policy.

Germany, Austria, France and Sweden have temporarily reinstated border controls.

Turkey is the great hope, with Ankara demanding three billion euros per year to take on the job of providing a sort of buffer zone for asylum seekers, allowing the UN High Commission for Refugees to do the sorting out and redistribution of those who can prove they are not simply on the move in search of better living conditions.

It's all very serious from a humanitarian point of view. According to European Commission president Jean-Claude Junker, it's economically serious, too. Earlier this week, Junker said that the end of the Schengen no-border zone would also mean the end of the euro.

Catholic La Croix and communist L'Humanité both give the front-page honours to the UN climate conference which opens in Paris tomorrow. The Pope has already warned that the failure to produce a serious and workable way ahead at Cop21 will be a catastrophe. Former UN chief Kofi Annan says that, even if the deal being sketched for the Paris talks is finally ratified, it is not sufficiently ambitious to meet the real global challenges.

L'Humanité calls for the climatic equivalent of the state of emergency declared in the way of the Paris attacks. And the Communist Party daily thinks the authorities have made a major mistake in banning public demonstrations for the duration of the climate conference, sacrificing the right of the public to express concern about the environment on the altar of security.

Le Monde also reports an increase of 42,000 in the number of French people looking for work last month, the third highest monthly rise in unemployment since François Hollande became president. That means that 3.85 million people are completely without work in France, nearly 5.74 million when you take into account those who have only occasional professional activity.

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