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French press review 1 March 2017

All candidates are equal before the law, but some are more equal than others. Will François Fillon survive his visit to the French Agricultural Show later today without mishap? And would it be a good idea for France to default on its public debt?

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Le Monde's website gives pride of place to the contradiction between the far-right National Front party's hard line against crimes and misdemeanours, and the various accusations of crimes and misdemeanours against the party leader, Marine Le Pen, and some of her top associates.

On the campaign trail, the National Front leader has promised "zero tolerance" for delinquents and petty criminals, an end to judicial laxity and to the improper use of parliamentary immunity.

At the same time, says Le Monde, Madame Le Pen has herself refused to respect a police summons calling her to answer questions about the source of money used to pay some of her party officials.

And she has said she won't be showing up for any police or judicial investigations until the French elections end in June.

Le Monde points out that Le Pen's staff have called for the long arm of the law to lay off their candidate, so that she can run her presidential bid unhindered by petty legal considerations. But the same staff were, just a few weeks ago, baying for François Fillon to be dragged through every court in the land in the family employment case. No question of allowing him to run his presidential bid unhindered.

Fillon attempts to get campaign firing again

Right-wing paper Le Figaro gives the front page honours to the very same François Fillon who, later today, will visit the Agricultural Show currently taking place in Paris. He risks, once again, being harassed by those who are angry at the right-wing candidate's decision to ignore his various legal embarrassments and continue his efforts to take the nation's top job. The conservative paper says his program and the organisation of his visit have clearly been planned to keep the possibility of disruption to a minimum.

Le Figaro looks more broadly at Fillon's efforts to get his campaign moving forward again. Lots of meetings, lots of press statements, an attempt to show that this is a full-time candidate. As for his latest political target, Le Figaro says it is clear that he intends to harden the line against the centrist Emmanuel Macron, currently well ahead of Fillon in the opinion polls.

French courts face challenge as under-age holy war suspect come up for trial

Left-leaning Libération devotes its front page story to the trial, due to open in Paris later today, of an under-18-year-old suspected of terrorist offences. There are currently 53 other legal minors awaiting trial in similar circumstances, and they represent, according to Libé, a huge legal challenge.

The crucial question is one of ultimate responsibility . . . while many of the young people awaiting trial are clearly guilty of the acts of which they are accused, the courts will have to decide to what extent vulnerable individuals have been manipulated by adult recruiters. As Libé says, many of these child soldiers are both killers and victims. Those who are most guilty, the actors behind the scenes, remain beyond the reach of justice.

Lent, a time for penance and political reflection

Catholic La Croix notes that today is the start of Lent, the seven-week period of fasting and reflection leading to Easter. The catholic daily says believers should use the time, which coincides with the high frenzy of the presidential campaign, to find their own truth in a climate where politics and politicians are largely discredited.

Why not restructure the French national debt?

The main story in business paper La Tribune looks at the proposition by socialist presidential candidate, Benoît Hamon, to restructure the national debt.

France currently owes 96 percent of the national wealth to creditors. "Restructuring" is a polite word for telling some of those creditors to shag off. Hamon, for example, thinks that paying back money to banks who are already making billions of euros of profit is a bit naff. The interest on what the country owes cost 45 billion euros last year. Much of the money borrowed is used to pay the interest on previous loans. And so on, down the gurgler. Maybe the state should just stop.

That, says La Trib, would obviously make future borrowings a tad delicate to negotiate, but it is not such a mad idea after all.

If interest rates rise, as they surely will one day soon, then last year's 45 billion will look like chickenfeed. Money can currently be borrowed at less than one percent. But that won't last forever.

La Tribune concludes that the banks have been largely responsible for the current situation because their pursuit of financial gain has destabilised the world economy. Therefore it is far from illogical to make the same banks pay by simply with-holding the interest and capital France has been forced to borrow from them to pay its artificially created debts.

The result would be short-term hardship since the state would rapidly run out of money and couldn't borrow any more. But that might be less painful than a strict application of the European law governing the ratio of debt to national production.

You can bet that not too many bankers will be voting for Benoît Hamon in April.

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