France's 'forgotten and angry'

The website Mediapart has a feature story on people feeling “forgotten and angry” in the presidential election campaign and who could switch to the far-right. ‘Ouvriers, employés, ces oubliés qui vivent le rage au coeur”.

The Communist paper L’Humanité leads that almost two out of three French people - 64% - are giving a “Massive NON” to Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to introduce a new form of VAT.

The left-wing daily Libération interviews economist Nicolas Bouzou, who backs Sarkozy, saying the new measure will be balanced by lower hiring costs for employers.

Le Figaro reports that the ruling UMP is accusing the Socialists of “debasing” the debate after Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande reportedly told journalists Sarkozy was a “sale mec” – “a nasty piece of work”.

Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui-en-France headlines: “The war of words” saying the spat is same-old-same-old as far as election campaigns go. It reports the UMP counter-attack: “Hollande is a non-entity, the boy is indecision itself”.

And Le Monde reports that France’s top-flight graduates from the “Grandes Ecoles” can no longer cruise through life picking the juicy jobs. They face dole queue fears too. The cartoon depicts one elite graduate in a recruitment office, saying: “Oh I am currently in a professional repositioning phase. I would like a pro-active exchange with one of your headhunters”.