French press review 23 March 2017

French press reacts to the London attacks and where it leaves the war against Islamist terror.

“London hit in the heart”, headlines Le Parisien. The paper has an update of the death toll claiming that on top of the victims, the attacker,  who struck down pedestrians with his car on the bridge to Palace of Westminster before crashing into the railings surrounding the heavily guarded Houses of Parliament, was shot dead by police.

Le Parisien points out that three French school children are among the pedestrians wounded in the attack.

“Islamist terrorism strikes at the heart of London”, also headlines Le Figaro. The assailant apparently acted alone the right-wing publication claims adding that investigators are now looking at Islamist terrorism as the motivation behind the attack inside the grounds of Westminster.

According to La Croix, while the ISIS strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa are on the verge of being captured by allied backed forces, the Islamic State is developing its tentacles in Yemen, in Afghanistan, and Egypt while remaining a threat in Europe and North America.

According to the Catholic daily, the London attacks launched on the day 68 countries grouped under Barack Obama's anti-Jihadist global coalition gathered in Washington  demonstrates that the world should not be carried away by family pictures. The springs of hatred are far from broken, concludes La Croix.

The objective pursued by terrorists is to frighten people and terrify them and to prove that they are masters of insecurity holds L'Union/L'Ardennais. The regional paper warns that in the face of such threats everyone's watch word should be individual vigilance, the courage of all and resolve by governments.

Le Courrier Picard calls for a deep reflection about what to do to stop these barbarians. Instead of preparing for war it says the anti-Islamic coalition should fine tune strategies to infiltrate the ranks of ISIS not just through digital techniques by with human intelligence.

For Sud-Ouest, this attack should become a motivation for European countries to close ranks despite the various crises that tend to divide them.

The corruption scandals polluting campaigns ahead of next month's French Presidential elections also inspire reflections by some commentators.

This is as they examine the ravages of Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux's forced resignation, after revelations that, like Francois Fillon, he  hired two of his teenage children as parliamentary aides paying them with public funds.

According to Le Monde, after graft-related resignations of budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac and ex-trade Minister Thomas Thévenoud, Le Roux's sacking adds an inglorious note to President François Hollande's ending reign.

The publication argues that it has also thrown French politicians into further disrepute. Le Monde wonders just what needs to be done for politicians to understand that the French people will no longer accept the regime of favours, privileges and impunity they have enjoyed for years.

Libération claims that just like Donald, Marine Le Pen is doing same. According to the left-leaning publication supporters of such tin-pot dictators are normal human beings like us.

Yet Libé explains that  they are more or less elderly, white, countryside folks, not rich, hardly educated and with strong religious beliefs. We need to find a way of getting them to reason like everyone else, concludes the left-leaning newspaper.