In the spotlight: the Paris-Washington relationship twenty thousand leagues under the sea
Audio 04:37
Many dailies are dedicating their front pages this Friday, September 17, to the cancellation by Australia of the contract for the supply of French submarines.
© Liberation / Le Parisien / Humanity
By: Norbert Navarro
8 mins
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The
case of the Australian submarines
, which opens a major transatlantic crisis, also falls worst for Emmanuel Macron.
Archive photo, the snapshot adorning the front page of the daily
Le Parisien
, under a threatening sky, was taken offshore, from the bow of a submarine sailing on the surface… before the dive. America "
torpedoed France
", formulates this daily. Of course, behind the verb torpedo, we can guess the “
torpedo
”, and in front of it, the target, from the pen of the
Parisian
, is none other than the French president.
It is a "
blow for Macron
", launches in fact this newspaper, to which an adviser of Emmanuel Macron confides that if this business of submarines finally bought by Australia to the American supplier and not French is "
lived at the Elysee as a diplomatic crisis of very high level
", the news falls"
all the more badly for the tenant of the Elysee that this Friday, the Head of State is preparing to celebrate the 40 years of the TGV , during an event organized at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. On paper, it was the occasion to celebrate the French industrial greatness, that of a time "when one built in the same year Ariane, the TGV and nuclear power stations"
", explains a close relative of the president to the
Parisian
.
The cancellation by Australia of this so-called "
century-old
" contract could also have consequences on employment at the French manufacturer of these submersibles.
This case of Australian submarines is a "
shipwreck
", adds
L'Humanité
.
And without delay, the communist daily warns that the CGT union of the French manufacturer Naval Group "
calls for a demonstration on September 23 in front of the
Parisian
headquarters
" of Naval Group, the manufacturer of the submarines ordered by Australia and which Canberra no longer wants. .
Admittedly, admits the newspaper
Les Echos
, it is a real "
blow of hammer
" for the French naval industry, but not that ... It is also, indeed, a "
diplomatic snub
" for France. As the French economic daily deplores it, Europeans have long lived "
with the illusion that the United States, a brother country, only wanted us good and that Joe Biden harbored a very special affection for the land of his ancestors
".
But the prize for titles smelling the good sea air returns this morning to
Liberation
.
Being reminded that the invoice for this famous "
contract of the century
" was to amount to 56 billion euros,
Liberation
summons Captain Haddock to angry to launch this curse: "
56 billion thousand ports
"!
Connoisseurs of Tintin's adventures will appreciate it.
This Australian submarine affair falls like a real storm warning on Paris-Washington relations
Le Figaro
does not write anything else, which underlines in the headlines and even more bluntly the "
diplomatic crisis between France and the United States
". According to this newspaper "
the contract of the century
" gave way to the "
snub of the year
". And for
Le Figaro
, there is no doubt, “
Australia is becoming an American platform, likely to soon accommodate its long-range missiles and stealth bombers. If necessary, it will not take long to become a nuclear power itself… France is paying the price for these geopolitical tensions
”, regrets the daily.
Le Figaro
returns at length this morning on the elimination by the French military force Barkhane, of "
the emir of Daesh in the Sahel
"
This is how
Le Figaro
presents Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, number one of the Islamic State in the Great Sahara, a “
success
” for the French army, and that this newspaper qualifies as “
indisputable
”.
However, notes the newspaper, at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, there is "
no illusion
"
.
Because if the emir of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb Abdelmalek Droukdel was eliminated in 2020 and the leader of the Islamic State in the Great Sahara in 2021, “
the Islamist threat has not disappeared
, admits this newspaper.
It even extends to the Gulf of Guinea, recalled Bernard Emié.
In northern Mali, al-Qaida remains a force all the more threatening as it benefits from the withdrawal of its rival EIGS.
Jihadism thrives on community soil, on poverty and the absence of the state.
Military success will not change anything
”, regrets
Le Figaro
.
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