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French press review 3 October 2016

British Prime Minister Theresa May is to launch European exit negotiations next March. Socialists may vote for Alain Juppé in the right-wing Republicans' primary. All this, and murderous mosquitos, in today's French dailies.

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All this morning's papers are excited by the news that the Brits have finally decided to pee or get off the pot. No one is yet sure which. But things are certainly moving. Yesterday Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she will launch the process to get the United Kingdom out of a united Europe before the end of March next year. That means that the 24 months of exit negotiations can then begin.

Most commentators note, in passing, that the British economy has not collapsed in the wake of the Brexit vote. In fact, things are going very nicely on the other side of the Channel.

However, an article in Le Monde wonders how long that happy situation will continue, with certain figures in London financial circles warning that the real crunch will come only after the exit negotiations are completed and the United Kingdom nations lose their automatic right to sell financial products in Europe. Jobs and money are going to be lost, it predicts, and companies currently in London are going to be forced to relocate. The worst may be still to come.

Libération notes that May yesterday promised Conservative activists at the party's annual conference a radiant future in a "completely independent and sovereign United Kingdom". Britain is going to make Brexit a success, May told her delighted audience, perhaps forgetting that, last June, the new prime minister herself voted for the country to remain in the European Union. She has promised "a global United Kingdom," whatever that might be taken to mean.

Can the left stop Sarkozy?

Le Monde's main story looks at French left-wing voters who intend to make their voices heard in next month's right-wing primary to pick the Republicans party's candidate for next year's presidential election.

A recent opinion poll sugests that 10 percent of French Socialist sympathisers are ready to vote in the opposition selection process, which is open to all, with a view to ensuring that former president Nicolas Sarkozy does not win.

A Sarkozy victory would almost inevitably lead to a presidential second round clash between the former president and the far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen. And it's that which the Socialists want to avoid.

Nicolas Sarkozy is understandably hot under his starched collar about "a left-wing plot to sabotage the primary". And he has accused his principal rival, Alain Juppé, of attempting to seduce left-wing voters.

To which charge Juppé replies: "When you try to get yourself elected by seducing National Front voters, you risk adopting policies inspired by far-right thinking."

There are unhappy voices to be heard on the left too, wondering if it is wise for Socialists to sign the Republicans-centrist charter, as required of every voter in the primary, even for a good cause, and also wondering about the financial impact of all the two-euro contributions the mainstream right party will earn from each voter in each round of the Republicans' selection process.

Le Monde says that many disappointed Socialists already plan to vote for Juppé in the first round of the real election as well as in the primary.

Right-wing daily Le Figaro notes that Prime Minister Manuel Valls feels that the Republicans charter is not compatible with a left-wing position. Valls yesterday said that voters would not only have to accept right-wing values - and, when he looks at the Sarkozy campaign, he wonders how anyone could do that - but Socialist voters will also have to agree that a change of government is the best way forward for France, a tacit denial of everything that he believes the Socialist administration has achieved.

Beware snails, snakes and intestinal worms

Finally, from regional paper Le Dauphiné, a list of the animals which kill the greatest number of human beings every year.

Snakes and dogs get honourable mentions but beware the killer snail, vector of the ghastly disease bilharsia. And the less said about intestinal worms, the better.

But human beings are the second most dangerous species for other human beings, with mosquitos, at 725,000 victims, top of the list of bad beasts. You have been warned.

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