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French press review 19 May 2012

President François Hollande’s maiden visit to the United States is the cover story in most French papers. The main dailies post positive comments about the convergence of views as President Obama, threw his weight behind French calls for more pro-growth policies in Europe, on the eve of a G8 summit darkened by Greece's possible exit from the eurozone.

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Le Monde welcomes the “Entente Cordiale” coming from the White House meeting where Obama forged an alliance with Hollande by pressing Europe to repair its debt-ridden economy and avert a global contagion.

The White House meeting got underway with Le Monde reporting about “Winds of panic and capital flight blowing through Greece and Spain” as investors withdrew a record three billion Euros from Greek banks over a 10-day rush.

Even right leaning Le Figaro marvels at what it termed the Obama-Hollande accord to “jolt Europe back to growth”. The paper holds that Washington is not just terrified by the magnitude of the financial earthquake that could result from a Greek Euro exit, but also of the consequences of a precipitated French pull-out from Afghanistan, says Le Monde.

Le Monde argues that by offering strong backing to Hollande’s agenda for EU growth, Obama is betting on a trade off on Afghanistan: a “deferred” timetable that will keep French troops in the Kapitsa Valley until the end of 2013, instead of the December 2012 deadline set by President Hollande.

“Breakfast in America” headlines Libération, in its own cover story, drawing from the tile of the award-winning album of progressive rock band Supertramp released in 1979.

The left-leaning newspaper claims that the surprising success of President Hollande’s trip to the White House comes confirms Palmerton’s doctrine, that “countries don’t have permanent friends but permanent interests”.

Libé says that principle of “realpolitik” was confirmed by the replacement of the Merkel-Sarkozy Franco-German “couple” on a night of storm in Paris and Berlin.

Dreams and reality is the title of another article published in today’s Le Figaro, as the conservative newspaper continues its bashing of “Mr Normal”.

It won’t take long for people to understand that the comedy is over, says Le Figaro when they find out that the jobs are not coming and that Hollande can’t deliver on his expensive campaign promises due to hard cash problems.

Aujourd’hui en France/Le Parisien is saddened by the glitch-plagued market debut of Facebook on Wall Street.

“What a saga”, exclaimed the paper, as shares went tumbling on Nasdaq on the first trading day. Shares in the social network titan saw roller-coaster action according to the paper, in what was expected to be one of most keenly awaited stock issues in history.

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