Monday Morning Papers Summary
LA REPUBBLICA
-The first polls and analyses of electoral flows are favorable to Marine Le Pen, who has reached the runoff ballot for the second time in 5 years. But compared to 2017 everything is differentMarine Le Pen’s performance allows her to aim for the presidency well beyond the results of the first round of the presidential elections in France, which saw Emmanuel Macron take a small lead over Rassemblement National candidate by more than three points. With the polls closed, a large part of defeated candidates have immediately endorsed the incumbent president.
-The Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, who will be in Algeria today to negotiate gas import deals, is convinced that the Lega and M5S parties will try to make the government unmanageable in the wake of Marine Le Pen’s success, which will keep the pro-European Union and NATO leaders on alert.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
-French Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has improved on her result from five years ago and, gaining a solid 23% of the vote. She has become a serious threat to Macron's re-election. On the evening of the election, she appealed to all voters who had not voted for Macron to join her. It was "a civilizational decision," she said.
-The World Bank has revised its economic forecast for Ukraine significantly downwards as the Russian war of aggression progresses. Economists predicted on Sunday that Ukraine's gross domestic product would fall by 45.1% this year – instead of the expected drop of between 10 and 35% a month ago. Grain exports and other economic activities have "become impossible in large parts of the country due to severe damage to infrastructure," Bjerde explained. This has global consequences: Because of the war, world market prices for grain and energy, where Ukraine and Russia are among the most important exporters, have shot up significantly. The economy of Russia, which is subject to international sanctions, will shrink by 11.2%.
HANDELSBLATT
-Acute staff shortages, frequent job changes and rapidly growing inflation rates are fueling a salary bubble among skilled workers in Germany. This is shown by a study by the management consultancy Willis Towers Watson (WTW), which is available exclusively to the Handelsblatt. The analysis focused on jobs that required specialized knowledge. According to this, since the outbreak of the corona crisis, the salaries of IT system architects have increased by almost a quarter on average. Salespeople in key account areas have also earned an average of 15% more since the pandemic. The situation is similar in controlling, marketing and financial analysis.
-Russia's war against the Ukraine is hitting German medium- sized companies hard. This is the result of a representative survey by DZ Bank, which was previously available to the Handelsblatt. For this purpose, more than 1000 managing directors and decision-makers of medium-sized companies were surveyed in the period from the end of February to the end of March. This makes it the first survey to show the effects of the war.
IL SOLE 24 ORE
-More than 600 multinationals have decided and announced total or partial exits from Russia since February. In the most diverse sectors, from oil and burgers to tech and media, from banks to accounting services. From Exxon Mobil and BP to McDonald's, from Citigroup to the kings of credit cards, from McKinsey and Bain to Apple and Disney.
-An Italian delegation led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the Ecological Transition Ministers Roberto Cingolani and Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio is heading to Algeria to strengthen energy cooperation between the two countries (as follow up to a previous diplomatic visit on February 28) accompanied by Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi. The plan is to double the amount of gas that Italy imports from Algeria, adding about 9B m3/year to the 10B m3 already supplied to Italy by Eni through the Transmed gas pipeline and in order to diversify sources and gradually free up the Italy from the Russian energy yoke. Algeria is currently Italy’s largest supplier after Russia (from which Rome imports some 29B m3/year). Draghi is also expected to sign a pact for joint investments in renewables, which have great development potential in Algeria and North Africa.
LES ECHOS
-As in 2017, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have qualified for the second round. The outgoing president came out ahead in the first round with 27.9% of the vote, according to OpinionWay estimates. It is doing better than five years ago (24%). Le Pen of the RN Party was second with around 23.3% of the vote, according to estimates. If she achieves the best score in the history of her political family in the first round of the presidential election, this may be less than she had hoped. The other big player of the first round of the election was absenteeism as 27.4% of voters shunned the ballot boxes according to estimates from Opinionway on Sunday evening.
-The big loser of the first round of the French presidential election is Valérie Pécresse. She claimed that the campaign was “the fight of a lifetime.” She actually gave everything, but her fight turned into an ordeal. For the second consecutive time, the Republican right is absent from the second round of the presidential election. The leaders of LR have not had access to power for ten years and for this political family which founded the Fifth Republic, it is more than a trauma, it is reason to question its raison d'être.
ABC
The war in Ukraine and the consequent sanctions imposed on Vladimir Putin 's Russia by the United States and the European Union (the latest version of which was approved last week) have secondary effects on the EU economies and, particularly, on an agricultural exporting power such as Spain (eighth exporter in the world and fourth at European level). Last year alone, agro-food products were sold abroad worth EUR60,118M, 11% more than in 2020. Especially fruit (EUR10,162M), meat products (EUR8,819M) and vegetables (EUR7,461M). Specifically, due to the cancellation of the Swift payment system and the strong depreciation of the ruble, countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Turkey or Israel , which had taken the place left in the Russian market by European nations such as Spain - following Russia's takeover of Crimea in 2014, are beginning to divert part of these exports to Europe.