Monitor: All the News of the World: French comment on the sacking for corruption of Corsica's most senior official

IF, IN judicial terms, the Corsica affair advances quickly, it is because its protagonists have speedily recognised that they can't expect from the government any discreet support. But judiciary diligence will not erase the disastrous political consequences of this affair of state. One year after the assassination of the Corsican governor, his successor is in custody and accused of ordering an arson attack. How on earth did we get here? At least three mistakes have been made from which the Prime Minister should immediately learn lessons if he wants to come out of this major political crisis with some grace: their methodology was wrong, they weren't vigilant enough and they are guilty of political under-estimation.

Le Monde

SO IS this the socialist version of the law of State? That's to say, certain of the state's representatives conduct themselves on national territory against their citizens as if they were at war with a foreign enemy. Political peripeteia can often conceal this fact. But it is important during this Corsican debacle - pitiful, ridiculous and lamentable - to keep in mind the affair's criminal side and its Mafia aspect. In France today people are using inadmissible methods in a state of law in order to reconstitute a state of law! That contradiction is insupportable.

Le Figaro

RESPECT FOR laws of the state in Corsica hasn't really advanced in the past year. Respect has, in fact, regressed in quite a dramatic manner - something greeted with a certain joy by the dreadful people who are spoiling this French region. And the right is wrong to cackle in enjoyment: it is politics in general which is sullied by this republican scandal. Jospin has chosen to take refuge behind the law. He doesn't want to precede any judicial decisions but rather wants to accompany them. He intends to show himself as being respectful of legal procedure. However, by doing this he risks appearing as if he is submitting to and being overtaken by this crisis.

Liberation