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French press review 24 June 2017

French commentators gvie thumbs-up to President Macron's showmanship at maiden EU Summit.

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Emmanuel Macron indesputably incarnates a new European willpower,  La Montagne says in today's editorial. The piece is consecrated on the new French leader's straight talk about revitalizing the European dream.

It argues that Macron is determined to see through the great idea brought forward by late French President Francois Mitterand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

According to La Charente Libre, Macron is right to showcase the solidity of the Franco-German couple as well as the so-called productive entente between himself and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But as the paper observes,  the sturdiness of the relationship will only matter if they manage to get the Franco-German engine working at full speed on issues such as unermployment and the management of refugees.

For Le Journal de la Haute-Marne, Macron's posture at the EU Summit is what experts in business management call reinforcing the strong points.

For the regional newspaper there is a consensus in Europe at the moment that the new French President has had a faultless start on the international scene.

L'Est Républicain  praises Emmanuel Macron for putting his finger where it hurts the most, namely by putting the sticking issue of detached workers on the agenda of talks with eastern European partners with a warning that Europe is not a supermarket.

La Voix du Nord says the French President was also right to call for the control of Chinese investments in strategic sectors of the European economy.

According to the publication, he was right, even if he left the EU Summit emptyhanded, after coming up against the hard realities of Brussels politics where French interests are not well viewed by the majority .

Le Monde reacts to warnings by EU leaders that British Prime Minister Theresa May's offer to protect the rights of European citizens after Brexit risked leaving them worse off than before.

It claims that the tone of the EU response shows how far the tide has turned.

Le Monde argues that it is not  May, who promised a radical Brexit on her terms, including threats to walk out, but Europe that is calling the shots now.

Le Monde says that after years of British semi-detachment from Brussels, the wind is now in the European sails and May fully understands that she doesn't have the means to set the timetable for negotiations.

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