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Saturday, September 20, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:30 AM:
We'll start French News Headlines with Ouest France:The Unemployed At End Of Their Rights. Payment of unemployment benefits is being reigned in; payments are being limited to a few years. I'm not sure how it works now; I know in the past people would take early retirement and draw unemployment until their pension kicked in. One question is how many people truly in dire straits were and will be denied sufficient help because of this practice. Curious how this country's solidarity with anyone trying to collect a check from the taxpayers has gradually given up more and more on its noble aspirations, even as the entitlement mentality wears on and every aggrieved group finds its cause more pressing even than starving homeless people, withering elderly in the summer heat, or the educational needs of the next generation. So what do you call the right of activists to be given whatever they want from the efforts of the taxpayers while the most downtrodden are swept out of sight? But of course: fraternité.
Le Figaro: Weekend of Alstom's Last Chance. At issue, will France get it together to turn in a budget acceptable to the EU standards? Or is the EU headed for a mess? Or both?
Le Monde: Alstom: One Weekend to Find a Solution. As above.
Libération: We'll skip Libé's top headline (about our tv programming) for this one: Alstom: Right and Left Against the Union. Which goes to the heart of the problem of French politics. The right and left share a belief in French exceptionalism that leads the left to economic nationalism for the sake of French socialism and the right to economic nationalism for the sake of French nationalism. Sanity and fiscal probity need not get involved.
By the way, the TurkeyBlog a) is no fan of the EU, b) is no fan of EU economic management and c) is delighted that the EU is in a tizzy over something new. That said, it's a shame that it takes a call for financial responsibility for the politicians of France to rediscover the importance of French sovereignty.
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