French press review 20 January 2017

The seven contenders for the left-wing presidential ticket had their third and last televised debate last night. An objective observer might wonder why they bothered, since the eventual Socialist champion is likely to end up in fourth or fifth place in the real presidential race.

They were at it again last night.

The seven contenders for the left-wing presidential ticket had their third and last televised debate.

Le Monde says the proceedings were marked by several clashes, notably on health, justice and what the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House will mean for the rest of us.

Right-wing Le Figaro lists the key points to retain from the latest Socialist gabfest, an occasion more marked by dissent and disagreement than the previous two outings.

Le Figaro says they debated how much social protection the state should provide, how the French debt is managed, what to do with the nation's prisons, Trump, and the threat posed to everybody by the independent challenger, once a  minister in the Socialist government, Emmanuel Macron.

Money for nothing? That doesn't sound like socialism!

Once again, a lot of energy was spent discussing the divisive question of a universal basic income, proposed by contender and rebel Socialist Benoît Hamon, broadly condemned as either psychologically, economically or politically unworkable by his opponents.

Le Figaro does not like the idea one little bit, suggesting that it would cost 300 billion euros per year, roughly the entire national budget, to finance.

Left-leaning Libération has already given up on three of the contenders, reporting the main points made by Socialist Party members only, in other words, Hamon, Manuel Valls, Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon.

That means that the breakaway Green François de Rugy, the very pink Sylvia Pinel (she's from the Radical Left Party) and the virtually colourless Jean-Luc Bennahmias have already been consigned to the dustbin of history.

The leftist daily agrees that Hamon's plan to give us money for nothing was everybody's target.

The problem is us, not the enthusiastic candidates

Catholic La Croix salutes the enthusiasm of the candidates, seeing them as brave campaigners against the general atmosphere of defeatism. Which won't save them from defeat but let's keep that general atmopshere in its place.

Does it all make any difference? The seven pillars of wisdom can go on talking till there's a power cut in Hell, not one of them has a statistical chance of making it into the second round of the real race for the French presidency.

A poll in Le Monde suggests that the best any Socialist candidate can hope for is a humiliating fifth place.

As things currently stand, the first round will be won by Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front, followed by François Fillon of The Republicans, with Emmanuel Macron coming third.

But, as I hardly need remind you on the day of The Donald's inauguration, we've all been conned by opinion polls in the past. Voting in the first round of the French Socialist-led primary takes place on Sunday.

A great step, backwards, for humanity

Speaking of The Donald, Communist daily L'Humanité sees his arrival in Washington as a backward step for society and for civilisation. He's a clown, he's xenophobic, he's racist and has problems with women. As from later today, he'll be the president of the world's leading commercial and military power.

Who told last year's best political lies?

Returning to French politics, I note that Robert Ménard, the populist mayor of the city of Béziers, has been awarded the top prize by a panel of the nation's journalists as best political liar in 2016. He succeeds Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy. This story is in Libération.

The jury noted Ménard's remarkable ability to be dishonest on the subject of immigration, he notably and repeatedly claimed that 75 percent of current French migrants are from north Africa and Turkey, or that courses in Turkish and Arabic are starting to replace French in the republic's schools.

Second place went to the former prime minister, now presidential contender, Manuel Valls.