Press studies Chirac action plan

The riots have triggered agonised soul-searching in France

Coverage of President Jacques Chirac's televised address after almost three weeks of suburban rioting dominates French newspapers on Tuesday.

For many commentators, the speech came not a moment too soon.

Alexis Brezet, writing in Le Figaro, says it was necessary "because throughout these 18 days of unrest, Jacques Chirac has said and done remarkably little about it [the violence]".

Le Monde notes that the speech came after criticism of the president's low profile and low ratings in the opinion polls.

"Chirac is back at his desk," says Jacques Camus in La Republique du Centre, "but for many, he showed signs of being tired, less in tune with the times, a little out of focus."

"Jacques Chirac has not abdicated," writes Jean-Michel Thenard in the left-wing Liberation. "He's been on the TV."

"But why didn't he step in earlier?", asks Pierre Taribo in L'Est Republicain. The paper questions the president's "grasp of the presidential role by making up for lost time" when, the writer charges, "he should be the one driving forward, directing, securing and underwriting the values of the Republic."

'Disarray'

Liberation says Mr Chirac's "diagnosis was right - a crisis of direction, a crisis of identity", but it accuses him of glossing over "any political responsibility, including his own" for the causes.

The left-wing paper is disappointed at what it sees as a lack of strong, specific proposals to address the problem.

"In the end," it concludes, "this was a speech which could barely disguise the disarray of a president confronted by his own hopeless record."

Le Figaro notes some of the measures announced by Mr Chirac, saying the government seems to have weathered the storm, after what it calls the "less than edifying backbiting" between government ministers when the unrest began.

Asking youngsters to dedicate a few months of their lives to service in the community ... would start to answer the fundamental question: What does it mean to be French today? Les Echos

"At last," it says, Jacques Chirac's government "seems to have decided to put in hand the essential, but politically, judicially and diplomatically difficult" immigration reforms, which it describes as "an example of unity in firmness, worthy of consideration."

Liberation, however, takes Mr Chirac to task for trying to put part of the blame for the rioting on illegal immigration.

Mr Chirac's remedies to persuade the rioters that they are "all the sons the daughters of the Republic sound like a placebo," it concludes.

Francoise Fressoz, writing in Les Echos, says Mr Chirac's proposal for a voluntary task force is "on the right track."

"Asking youngsters to dedicate a few months of their lives to service in the community would encourage better social integration," she comments.

"It would start to answer the fundamental question: What does it mean to be French today?"

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