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Published on: 02/09/2026 - 07:47

On the front page of the press, this Monday, February 9, are reactions to yesterday's clear victory of socialist Antonio José Seguro in the presidential election in Portugal. The British Prime Minister in turmoil, in the wake of the Epstein affair. The nibbling of the West Bank by Israel, whose army is accused of having knowingly left a 14-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank to die, after having shot him. And the Winter Olympics.

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On the front page of the press, reactions to yesterday's clear victory of socialist Antonio José Seguro in the presidential election in Portugal.

“Presidente Seguro”, “Seguro president, a safe president”: play on words, this morning, on the front page of the Jornal de Noticias. "Seguro presidente": Diario de Noticias indicates that his rival, André Ventura, the boss of the far-right Chega party, intends to claim, for his part, his "leadership" on the Portuguese right, with his 33% in the second round. The newspaper announces "the beginning of a new political cycle", which the socialists would approach "with a structural advantage", to the extent that "the parties located to its left (have) lost their influence", thus opening the way "to a more centrist socialist discourse, more in tune with the fluctuating electorate of the political center".

In the immediate future, Publico evokes "a good night for democracy", Portugal having "everything to gain" from seeing a leader "endowed with legitimacy and moral authority" strong enough "to facilitate and demand dialogue" ascend to the presidency. “The only surprise of these elections was the Portuguese people themselves, who responded to those who thought that, in the face of tragedy, they were incapable of defending democracy,” welcomes Expresso.

Abroad, Le Soir rejoices in the "sick rejection of the extreme right that is still alive among those who experienced the end of the Salazarist dictatorship", and which explains, according to it, "this democratic slap in the face inflicted on the self-confessed Trumpist André Ventura". “The Democrats can breathe, but for how much longer?”, however, wonders the Belgian newspaper. For The New York Times, the presence of a nationalist in the second round shows that Portugal "is not immune to the rise of the far right in Europe" and that "Chega now benefits from considerable geographical influence" fueled by a series of discontents, "notably on housing and the cost of living".

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a political storm in the wake of the Epstein affair. According to The Daily Telegraph, the head of the British government has just played "his last card" with the resignation of Morgan Mc Sweeney. Keir Starmer's chief of staff was pushed out for having been the architect of the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States, even though his friendship with the child criminal Jeffrey Epstein was notorious. "Starmer hopes to regain control of the Labor Party after McSweeney's departure": according to The Guardian, Keir Starmer's supporters hope that this resignation "will calm the anger provoked by the Mandelson scandal". Not sure… “How long will Starmer be able to hold out?”, asks The Daily Mail. “Are Starmer’s days numbered?”, also headlines The Daily Express.

The Epstein affair caused the fall, here in France, of Jack Lang, a major figure in politics and the world of culture, on the left. His forced resignation on Saturday from the Arab World Institute made the front page of Libération, which evokes a hitherto "immovable", "unshakable" figure of "culture made in France". Jack Lang, also on the front page of Le Figaro, not unhappy to witness the fall of this loyalist among the faithful of former President François Mitterrand. The daily devotes two of its editorials to the man it describes as "the bard of the caviar left", who found himself "accountant of an era that ended badly". “Culture is me”: Le Figaro highlights “the very monarchical conception” that the former socialist minister would have had of his role, and a left “proud of (its) icon”, which would have guaranteed him in return “supremacy and influence over the entire world of artists”.

In Israel, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu announces measures to strengthen Israeli control over the occupied West Bank. The Jerusalem Post indicates that one of these measures will notably make it possible to lift restrictions on the sale of Palestinian land to Israelis - and therefore to encourage the expansion of settlements, in violation of international law. Le Figaro, for its part, reports that a law currently being examined in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, also plans to transfer archaeological sites in the West Bank to the Israeli Ministry of Heritage, "opening the way to their de facto annexation".

Alongside these lifting of legal obstacles, violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is increasing. The left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz reports the shocking death of Jadallah on November 16. This 14-year-old boy was shot dead by an Israeli army paratrooper unit in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The Haaretz investigation, supported by damning videos, reveals that Jadallah, injured and lying on the ground, begged for help from soldiers indifferent to his fate, even as his family watched helplessly at this scene. According to Haaretz, the Israeli army claims to have killed "a terrorist representing an immediate threat", and Israel now holds the remains of this child, described by his family as "timid and cautious", and who "always fled when the soldiers appeared".

Very far from the occupied West Bank, the Winter Olympic Games are taking place in Milan Cortina, Italy, where the French won their first gold medal yesterday. Favorites for the title, the Blues Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Lou Jeanmonnot and Julia Simon kept their promises by winning the mixed biathlon relay. The Team is delighted to see this French team “at its level and perfectly launched in its Olympics”. Slide youth!

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