French press review 8 June 2017

Britain votes in an election, unlike no other in the shadow of terror attacks in Manchester and London while the EU unveils a giant defence fund that breaks a decades-long taboo.

According to Le Figaro the winner of today's snap election in Britain will have the power to shape the the UK's future as it leaves the European Union.

But the conservative publication wonders why Prime Minister Theresa May bothered to call such a risky referendum. The decision it argues confirms a fatality in British leaders to shoot themselves in the foot.

La Croix says that whatever the outcome of the vote, the issue at stake will not be Brexit but how to get the best out of the divorce.

For the Catholic daily, the snap poll leaves one with the impression that the British people are disoriented and more divided with the Scotts and the Northern Irish "clamouring to defend their own interests".

According to La Croix, the fundamental issue of concern to Brussels is a confusing outcome likely to emerge from the polls and the uncertainty the verdict brings to the Brexit negotiations.

Le Monde welcomes the EU's unveiling of a 5.5 billion euro annual fund to help Europe stand alone as a global military power in the wake of Donald Trump's decision to put America First in his defence policy.

The paper says that while Europeans had dreamt about the vision of an all-European defence mechanism, it was finally terrorism and Donald Trump that helped deliver it for them.

By bringing a military dimension to European construction, the publication argues, Brussels had finally succeeded in breaking the decades-long taboo of limiting the European project to an all civilian concept.

With four days left before Sunday's French Legislative Elections, some commentators focus on President Emmanuel Macron's hunt for a parliamentary majority.

L'Est républicain lends credence to opinion surveys predicting a landslide for the newly-elected President's Republic on the Move party.

The regional publication claims that the REM movement is targeting 400 parliamentary seats in the 577-member house as it looks to capitalize on an unprecedented run of good fortune unwitnessed under the 5th French Republic.

First, the new law prohibiting the holding of multiple elected posts, and then political burnout which forced several long-serving MP's not to seek re-election.

It all looks like a done deal comments Le Courrier picard as it contemplates what it calls the “Macronmania” and "pervading euphoria" sweeping through the country.

However, l'Opinion holds that a landslide victory would leave Emmanuel Macron in a strange paradox -- by making him too powerful to fulfill his campaign promise to let the French people undertake a complete overhaul of the French political landscape, in a collective effort.