French weekly magazines review 15 January 2017

This week, everything you need to know about the new world order . . . it's the old world order, only worse. Would 25 ideas be enough to wake up the political left? How are the French secret sevices doing in the war against terrorism? What does the independent presidential contender Emmanuel Macron really stand for?

DR

The one good thing about this week's front pages is that there's no photograph of Donald Trump.

Instead, Le Point offers a chilling image of Vladimir Putin to illustrate a series of articles on "The New World Order".

If you want a quick summary of 25 pages of analysis, it's the old world order, only less stable. Russia's on the rise, China's coming along nicely, no one has a clue what The Donald will do once he gets settled into the Oval Office on Friday and Europe is going down the tubes.

The good news, according to Le Point, is that those who claim that the world was never in greater danger are talking rot. If you are really scared about the future, it advises, reread a general history of the 20th century.

What will it take to wake up the French left?

The main item in Le Nouvel Observateur is a rundown of 25 ideas to wake up the French left wing. It made me want to fall asleep.

Number 1 is the still highly controversial universal basic income, ensuring everyone a basic minimum wage.

Number 25 is a call for the more frequent application by the government of its right to produce a generic version of any medical treatment, if the commercial version of that treatment is too expensive. According to the charity World Doctors, the simple threat to their huge profits would, in many cases, be enough to bring the pharmaceutical monsters to their senses.

Who is winning the information war against terrorism?

L'Express looks at the performance of the French secret services in the war against Islamist terrorism.

The very nature of modern terrorist attacks, often organised and perpetrated by individuals or small groups, frequently without the use of arms and explosives, represents a huge challenge for those whose job it is to protect the rest of us.

The main dangers revealed by L'Express would seem to stem from rivalries between the various branches of the spy services, and an over-reliance on information from foreign sources, notably the United States.

The final verdict after 20 pages of analysis is one you could have predicted yourself: no system is ever going to be infallible and the number of potential targets offered by a Western city of moderate size is incalculable. Things can be improved, life made more difficult for the would-be killers but they can never be completely stopped.

What does Macron really stand for?

And then there's the weekly magazine Marianne, annoyed about the huge amount of media coverage given to independent presidential challenger Emmanuel Macron. Marianne says it is sick of seeing and hearing the man, and then, somewhat illogically, puts him on the cover.

The point, of course, is to ignore the media image which the man has so carefully constructed, and to focus on his political ideas.

He claims to believe that the traditional division between left and right is outmoded but what does Macron really stand for?

He says he wants to make it easier for employers to take on workers. Marianne describes his proposals as either economically naive or likely to lead to a nation of part-timers.

Macron wants us all to have more money to spend and says he'll do this by abolishing the charges employees currently pay to cover sickness and unemployment benefit. Which will create a financial black hole and fundamentally change the relationship between workers, employers and the state, Marianne believes.

French Socialists face abject defeat in 2017 polls

With the winter sales now in full swing in French shops, weekly satirical paper Le Canard Enchaîné wonders if the Socialist Party might not do well to change its slogan to "Everything must go".

The Socialists, who have still to choose their presidential candidate, are looking as if they might do well to finish a distant fourth in the presidential first round, behind François Fillon for The Republicans, Marine Le Pen's National Front and independent centrist Macron.