French press review 2 November 2009

by Michael Fitzpatrick

Article published on the 2009-11-03 Latest update 2009-11-03 07:00 TU

Le Monde gives pride of place to US president, Barack Obama, just about to celebrate his first anniversary as leader of the world's most powerful country.

There's not much cause for celebration, would be a fair if unflattering summary of the centrist paper's point of view: the effects of the global financial crisis on American money, the military quagmire in Afghanistan, and the impossibility of the situation in the Middle East have each cast their shadows on Obama's first year in the job.

On the domestic front, unemployment, health care and climate change all dog the president, leaving the Republican opposition the hypocritical role of honest brokers.

There are local elections in the United States this very Tuesday - one for the job of Governor of the state of New Jersey. New Jersey has been a Democrat stronghold for the past 20 years, during which time there has been virtually full employment.

Now, with the number of Jersey residents out of work at or about the national average, the Republicans are hoping to capitalise on the grievances of the trade unions.

It's just a local election, but the media have billed it as an important test of voter confidence in the Obama administration. The President himself must see it that way too. He's made two visits to New Jersey in the past three weeks, trying to drum up support.

Business daily Les Echos calmly informs us that the British, Finnish and French nuclear security people are worried that the computer software supposed to control the next generation of nuclear reactors simply isn't up to the job.

According to one expert, the gizmo is so busy making sure the reactor is generating juice, it ignores error messages warning that the whole operation is about to go through the floor, taking most of the rest of us with it.

It could take years to re-write the programme to make sure the machine understands the difference between efficiency and the China Syndrome.

No worries, says the construction firm Areva, which is already three very expensive years behind schedule on its promise to have a reactor up and bubbling in Finland.

It has promised to have a patched-up version of the stupid software ready before you can say "Chernobyl", "Three Mile Island" and "Boom!"  That's supposed to be good news, just in case you were wondering.