French press review 26 July 2017

The part played by global warming in the current spate of forest fires across southern Europe, unemployment statistics showing a recent improvement, Trump's troubles and Turkey's relations with Europe are all on this morning's menu.

Le Monde says the forest fires which have ravaged parts of southern France, Corsica and Portugal over the past few days are partly the result of climate change.

Higher temperatures over longer periods, strong winds related to the movement of air masses and conditions of intense drought have all contributed to this summer's sequence of southern fires, and all are directly related to global warming.

Le Monde suggests that the drought may also have hampered firefighters by reducing the pressure of water available.

More French at work

French unemployment figures are down again.

According to statistics released by the Labour Ministry yesterday, 3,739,000 people were out of work in June, a slight decrease on the previous month.

While the tendency over the past three months is positive, sadly the figures for the half year since January show an overall increase of 15,300 persons without any paid employment.

EU talks to Turkey

Turkey and the European Union remain on speaking terms but that's about as far as it goes after what diplomats call a "high-level meeting" in Brussels yesterday between two ministers from Ankara and two European commissioners.

Both sides agree that the dialogue must continue.

While the Turkish delegates were insisting that the time has come to move forward on the question of their nation's application to join the European Union, the Brussels contingent were insisting on the need for Ankara to show more respect for basic democratic rights and freedom of expression.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to bring the negotiations to an end and to reintroduce the death penalty in Turkey, a decision which would oblige the European partners to end all negotiations with Ankara.

There are to be further meetings to discuss energy and economic relations, as a prelude to a Turkey-EU summit.

Things get tough for Trump & Company

Right-wing daily Le Figaro goes to town on the troubles of the family of US President Donald Trump as Congress starts interviewing those closest to the president about the dynasty's links with Moscow.

If the storm continues to make waves in Washington teacups, Moscow has moved on according to Le Figaro, now regarding its former American best friend as weak and powerless, the antithesis of Vladimir Putin.

Le Figaro's editorial says the freedom from fussy constraint and standard political practices might have been seen as part of Trump's "charm" when he first took up residence in the White House, now those same qualities are being reviewed in a darker light, symptomatic of the win-at-all-costs mentality that might work in the world of big business but is less acceptable in the real world, particularly in the dangerously touchy realm of politics.

The right-wing paper is this morning asking its readers if they think the weak and powerless will actually make it to the end of his four-year mandate. With 30,000 votes a few minutes ago, the "yes" camp was slightly ahead at 52 percent, the other 48 percent thinking Trump will trip over his tongue or something else before his time is officially up.

Are lots of tourists a good thing?

Libération's main story celebrates the return to full health of the French tourist industry.

Last year was "catastrophic", the paper says, in the wake of terrorist tragedies, strikes and floods. But 2017 is looking very good. There's to be an interministerial meeting later today to discuss ways of making things even better.

The objective is to have 100 million foreign visitors spending 50 billion euros by the year 2020 and it is now within reach says Libé. But the left-leaning daily wonders if the French tourism sector is not in danger of becoming too successful for its own good.

The Louvre Museum has seen visitor numbers triple over three decades, there are twice as many people queuing for lift up the Eiffel Tower, 13 million people want to see the inside of Notre Dame, the authorities at Versailles have hiked prices by 20 percent in an effort to slow the flow and now charge separately for the gardens. And still they come.

And that's with just 89 million visitors. How long will the queues get when the target of 100 million is met?

Libé says today's meeting will be an effort to increase tourist income without selling the nation's soul.