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French press review 9 June 2017

The French papers this morning look very like English papers, only written in French.

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Le Monde's electronic edition is awash with news of the political shipwreck across the Channel.

The French centrist daily reproduces the front pages of the London papers, saying Prime Minister Theresa May comes in for a roasting.

"May's big gamble fails," says the very serious Times. Adding the very serious sub-head "Pound plummets over uncertainty as Labour fight back".

Conservative paper the Daily Telegraph limits itself to the straightforward "Shock for May as exit polls point to hung parliament".

The right-wing Daily Mail's election special says this was a "Gamble that backfired". The Mail speaks of "shocks", "surges", "Britain on a knife edge", "Fears of Brexit chaos", and "humiliation".

The same paper has Theresa May "Hanging by a thread," suggesting that she is not only facing a hung parliament but could also lose her job.

The Sun, never a publication to allow common sense or sentiment to get in the way of a punchy headline, goes for "Hung out to dry," saying both the Conservatives and the Scottish Nationalists are "Stinging in the rain". A later edition goes for "Theresa Dismay".

"Exit poll shock for May," says the Guardian.

The pink paper, the Financial Times, soberly summarises the situation by saying "May's gamble backfires as voters reject bid for stronger mandate".

Strong and stable

Le Monde swallows all that and gives the front-page honours to the British prime minister's call for stability, despite the fact that an election she herself called looks like leaving her needing the support of the Ulster Unionists if she's to form a government.

Right-wing Le Figaro notes that the anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party looks like being another of the night's big losers, probably collecting fewer than five percent of votes overall and winning no seats, less than 12 months after the "success" of Brexit.

Libération wonders what impact this electoral setback is going to have on the negotiations between London and Brussels on the conditions under which the United Kingdom will withdraw from the European Community.

Some experts suggest that this was a vote in favour of a "soft" Brexit involving continued customs and market links with Europe and against the harder, more isolated bargaining position favoured by May.

Libé says the prime minister will soon face a call to explain to party bosses how she managed to lose an election that couldn't be lost. Now, where did we hear that expression before?

Pure lies and honest loyalty

What else is making the news?

Libération is loudly against any attempt to integrate the emergency legislation which has been repeatedly reenacted since since last year's Paris terrorist attacks into the normal legal arsenal.

Le Figaro looks at Donald Trump's trouble with the staff as former FBI head James Comey accuses the president of lying and trying to influence a federal investigation into Russian interference in the election that won Trump his job.

Yesterday Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the president was guilty of "pure and simple lies."

You don't have to be a moral philosopher to know that lies are never pure, and rarely simple. But Comey is angry that the president tried to defame him personally and, even worse, cast a slur on the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Comey notes that he spoke to Trump(s predecessor,  Barack Obama, twice in three years, the second time to say farewell to the departing leader. In four months of the Trump presidency, he had no fewer than nine meetings with the Oval officer, several of those private face-to-face affairs.

When Trump asked Comey if he wanted to keep his job and called for "loyalty", the FBI chief promised "honesty". Yes said Trump, "that's what I want, honest loyalty." God bless America!

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