PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, July 8: French and international newspapers react to Marine Le Pen's conviction and her decision to press ahead with her presidential bid. Also, Turkey deports a Russian anti-war activist back to Russia, raising fresh questions about the safety of anti-war Russians abroad. Finally, is there a major male fertility crisis?
French papers react to Marine Le Pen’s decision to run for the presidency and appeal her conviction. La Voix du Nord says that “there was only a tiny window of opportunity (...) and Marine Le Pen rushed through it”. According to the paper, Le Pen “remains in control”. L’Opinion says she has been “neither barred nor exonerated,” so “Le Pen chose a third path” with her decision to run for the presidency. Le Parisien writes that the National Rally leader “could have disappeared from the political scene and her opponents were already celebrating”, but they underestimated the “political animal” with whom the voters continue to identify. According to the paper, the conviction “will likely not be a liability” for Marine Le Pen. Le Figaro says that Le Pen’s problem is not so much her “legal saga” but her “economic promises”. The paper says that there are doubts about her party’s ability to govern. Le Monde says that Le Pen benefited from a “tailor-made” and “lenient” ruling, but the conviction is “nevertheless severe”. La Croix writes that there’s a “risk of destabilisation” that “Marine Le Pen poses to democracy”. For the Catholic daily, Marine Le Pen also “risks considerably weakening her camp, for which she alone is responsible”. Some reaction from the international press: According to El País, “Marine Le Pen is stepping up her campaign and breaking all her promises”. The Spanish paper writes that this is “her right as a citizen,” but “her political word has now lost all credibility”. The Financial Times writes that Marine Le Pen “is posing as the victim of a politicised judiciary”. The strategy might appeal to her core voters, but “the French as a whole don’t buy it”, says the paper. According to Italian paper La Repubblica, the confirmation of Marine Le Pen’s conviction is “a serious blow to the French far right, but certainly not the final blow”. The paper fears “the incalculable consequences” of the rise of the far-right to the Elysée – “a disaster not only for Paris, but for the entire European Union", which is “struggling to find a unified response to the coordinated attacks by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin". In other news, Independent paper The Moscow Times writes that “Turkey’s deportation of anti-war Russian signals the growing risks for Kremlin critics abroad”. The paper says this appears to be the first known case of Ankara returning an activist to Moscow. 24-year-old Ariadna Litvinova was charged by the Russian authorities for “discrediting” the army after she protested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with anti-war messages on banners. She was deported on Saturday. The paper explains that deportation means that the move was formally initiated by Turkey and not in response to a Russian extradition request. She was immediately detained upon arrival. Finally, some bad news about male reproductive health. The Guardian writes that men’s average testosterone levels have halved in the last 50 years, according to the latest research. Scientists say society is facing a “major” male fertility crisis. Rising levels of obesity and diabetes play a part, but research suggests that environmental factors could be harming the reproductive system as well. Among these are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can be found in household items. Previous work from the same scientific team concluded that sperm counts have steeply declined over the past 40 years. So this is just the latest research on and contribution to a widespread debate about whether male fertility is on a decline and why. You can catch our press review every morning on FRANCE 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.
