French press review 16 April 2011
Boiling police anger over a new custody law, the secularism debate and controversial job cuts in the public service dominate the news in Saturday’s French papers.
Le Figaro takes up police anger over an appeals court verdict imposing the presence of lawyers throughout the questioning of suspects.
There was confusion in several police stations around the country as thousands of ongoing investigations faced being scrapped as the law took effect on Friday, according to the conservative tabloid.
One police Union leader tells the newspaper they will abide by the law but warns about a chaotic process that undermines victims rights and the quest for truth.
Le Figaro explains that the French practice of police custody was outdated and exposed France to condemnation by the European Human Rights Court the coming into force of the new law, according to the paper is a blow to the security-minded center-right government which had petitioned the court to repeal the lawmakers’ reform.
In 2009 alone more than 800,000 citizens were taken into custody without proper recourse, as the police struggled to meet the government’s “politics of figures”, according to official statistics
Le Monde welcomes a gesture of appeasement by Interior minister Claude Guéant after the polemics on secularism.
The newspaper quotes the minister as saying that he recognises the need to instill some serenity in the security debate and that he understands the reservations expressed by church leaders opposed to the debate on Islam..
Le Monde reports that as a sign of goodwill, Monsieur Guéant is setting up an interministerial commission that would draft a secularism code of conduct, that enshrines the neutrality of public services, ensure conditions for faith practice, and put in place a mechanism for secular conflict resolution.
Libération headlines on the dangerous dismantling of the public service by the ruling centre-right government The paper recalls president Sarkozy’s campaign pledge in 2007 to replace only half of the 450 thousand civil servants due retirement by 2012.
That will leave the state short of a hundred thousand state workers by 2013, according to the newspaper
Libé also explains that strategic sectors such as justice, higher education, research and elderly health care are badly hit by the government dogma which undermines the basic vocation of the state.
The left-leaning tabloid states that the haemorrhage has provoked a deep malaise in the country and warns of a backlash if President Sarkozy continues his policy.
La Croix marks the 50th anniversay of the Algerian war with a survey of changing opinion especially within the military.
The Catholic newspaper reports that army officers are speaking out more freely now about the brutal 8-year conflict that left long-standing scars in both French and Algerian society.
La Croix collected eye-witness accounts of the complex conflict, characterized by guerrilla warfare, terrorism against civilians, the use of torture on both sides and counter-terrorism operations by the French army.
They include the circumstances surrounding the abortive coup staged by French generals as they tried to keep Algeria under French rule. There are moving witness accounts by some of the veterans who recall sentiments of bitterness and betrayal after risking their lives to uphold the honour of the French army.
Libération worries about the fate of the propaganda chief of ousted Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo. Charles Blé Goudé has gone missing since Gbagbo’s capture by French and UN-backed Ouattara forces.
Libé reports that Ble Goudé who founded the pro-Gbagbo movement of Young Patriots is the most-wanted man in the country right now. He is suspected of distributing thousands of weapons to some 50 thousand estimated members of the militia.
Libération predicts a tough time for pro-Ouattara forces who must find the arms caches dissimulated across the economic capital.
La Croix reflects on the new condition of Laurent Gbagbo detained at a UN-guarded compound in northern Côte d’Ivoire.
The newspaper has a picture of an happy Gbagbo sitting on a bed next to his dishevelled wife at the Golf Hotel.
La Croix notes that the photograph recalls a similar photo of the hirsute Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
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