French press review
In the spotlight: Macron-Mélenchon, the duel
Audio 04:10
Election posters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Emmanuel Macron.
AFP - JOEL SAGET
By: Norbert Navarro
3 mins
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The first round of the legislative elections, this Sunday, in metropolitan France?
For the press, it boils down to a duel between Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
However, a study hoisted to the front page of the newspaper
Le Monde
, dated today, confirms "
the structuring in three poles of equivalent weight
" of the French political landscape.
Striking contrast between the headlines on newsstands and the risk of record abstention anticipated by the latest polls on voting intentions.
Most opinion polls anticipate high abstention, such as that of Ifop for
Paris Match,
according to which four out of ten French people are interested in the legislative elections, a poll consequently predicting a participation rate of barely 40% .
Thus, according to the front page of Le
Parisien Dimanche
, it is nothing less than the five-year term which "
is being played out now
".
And to make itself better understood, this newspaper, on the inside pages, assures that "
Macron is playing the future of his five-year term
".
It goes without saying that, by the use it makes of the verb "to
play
",
Le Parisien Dimanche
intends to signify the stakes of these legislative elections.
And for the newly re-elected President of the Republic;
and for the opposition...
The Opposition?
It is precisely part of the latter, and not the least, that
Le Journal du Dimanche
has chosen to hoist to its front page , waving "
the red rag
", alias Jean-Luc Mélenchon, figurehead of the alliance of the left, engaged, therefore, by a good part of the press, this week, in a "
duel
" with President Macron, and who appears stern in his gaze and peremptory gesture, in a posture full of injunction and authority, to the front page of the
JDD
.
Lexical swelling again, with this title of
Marianne
presenting the election of today and next Sunday as "
the most important elections for forty years
"!
Don't throw any more?
But what about this title of the
JDD
which presents the right "
on the verge of bankruptcy
"?
As we can see, the spring atmosphere of this sunny Sunday in mainland France, according to the press, which creates suspense, could end in a more tense atmosphere this evening, at the opening of the polls.
Ukraine, child martyrdom
“
They were children and were murdered in Boutcha
”.
It is the weekly
L'Obs
which, this week, "
recounted their martyrdom
".
This magazine thus evokes the tragedy of Igor, 15 years old, killed "
in cold blood
" in front of the entrance to the cellar where a hundred inhabitants were holed up "
during the Russian occupation of Boutcha
", a town near Kiev where , to date, 416 bodies have been found, including 32 children.
Tragedy again, that of Ivan, 15, " machine-
gunned in his mother's car
".
And what about that of Nastia, 6 years old, who “
died in a kindergarten
”…
Child martyrs, but also survivors… orphans.
"
Numbers mean nothing,
" says
The Obs, because they evade, for example, this tragedy: the Ukrainian orphanages evacuated in the emergency.
They would be at least 100,000 kids, according to the High Commissioner for Refugees, to have been transferred to the west of the country, or to neighboring countries: in Poland alone 4,000 are housed in temporary reception houses.
But what will happen to them tomorrow, questions this weekly, especially since many are not legally adoptable?
70% of these children still have parents, and were placed in these institutions because the latter, disabled or facing poverty, could not keep them at home... Will the host countries be able to take care of them indefinitely? , when we know the cruel lack of budget for Childhood Social Assistance in France?
», wonders again
The Obs
.
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French legislative 2022