French press review 1 June 2017

Will President Donald Trump this evening renounce the Paris climate deal and unleash America's greenhouse-gas generating carbon sector? And will President Emmanuel Macron continue to stand by his scandal-beleagured ministers?

We will have to wait until eight o'clock this evening for official confirmation of the US position on the Paris climate deal but most commentators think President Donald Trump is going to announce an American withdrawal.

The American leader says he listened to a great many opinions, on both sides of the argument, before making his decision.

A key element in Trump's election campaign was a promise to boost the fossil fuels sector involving coal, oil and gas, with a view to defending American jobs. He also promised to abandon the Paris agreement.

Scott Pruitt, the man Trump appointed to head the US Environmental Protection Agency, has already called for Washington's withdrawal, describing the agreement as a bad deal for America.

The US president ended yesterday's twitter message announcing the timing for today's decision with a repeat of his campaing slogan "Make America great again".

Just in case anyone has forgotten, the 2015 Paris climate deal involved over 190 countries and aimed to limit the rise of global temperatures. The United States and China are the two biggest contributors to the greenhouse gas emmissions which most climate scientists agree are responsible for the potentially catastrophic recent rise in temperatures worldwide.

Le Monde says Trump could decide to withdraw from the Paris agreement, a move which wouldn't take effect until 2020. Unless, of course, he pulls out of the UN's overall convention on climate change completely. Which would leave the US free to pollute as much as the president wishes, with no delay or additional difficulty.

A third possibility would be for Trump to remain in the Paris framework but to renegotiate American objectives and obligations.

The objectives set in Paris were agreed on a voluntary basis, with the Obama administration promising to get US greenhouse gas emmissions down by 28 percent of their 2005 levels before 2025.

Most voters want suspect ministers to stand down

The main story in conservative paper Le Figaro says the powers that be in the presidential camp behind Emmanuel Macron are becoming increasingly worried as the general election approaches.

Two current ministers are in frankly embarrassing judicial postures.

Territorial Cohesion Minister Richard Ferrand and Marielle de Sarnez, his colleague at European Affairs, are suspected of various abuses of power in previous incarnations: he in the property sector, she in the well-walked and unhappy realms of fictional employment. Both have asserted their absolute innocence, claiming to be the victims of lies and calomnies. Which is what politicians invariably do in such circumstances.

The problem is that mere suspicion is already too much for those voters who believed Emmanuel Macron's promise that he would clean up the shady world of French political advantages.

An opinion poll published yesterday suggested that three-quarters of the electorate think Ferrand should resign; 62 percent of those questioned want to de Sarnez do the same thing.

For the moment, Macron is placing fidelity and friendship before political considerations.

At yesterday's cabinet meeting he defended his beleagured troops, calling for solidarity and the giving of good example, lamenting the fact that the press corps seemed to have taken over the functions of the judiciary. The president reaffirmed the principle of innocent until proved otherwise, saying that any member of government would automatically be sacked if they became the subject of a police investigation.

Le Figaro says that, regardless of his longstanding and very close personal relationship with Ferrand, one of the now-president's earliest supporters, Macron wants to show that he is capable of standing up to media pressure.

The right-wing paper notes that the president will later today visit the port city of Lorient, home of the ocean-going tug the Abeille Bourbon, known for its prowess in saving vessels menaced by storm. Macron is expected to spend some time on board. Indeed.