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French press review 31 May 2014

Why does the US want to fine a French bank billions? Can BNP Paribas survive? Was Egypt's presidential election a farce? And everything you wanted to know about Brazil ahead of the World Cup.

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Le Figaro asks why French bank BNP Paribas  faces a giant fine in the US.

Le Monde headlines with the potential figure of that fine: a whopping 10 billion dollars!

The US has accused BNP Paribas of violating US embargoes between 2002-2009. Iran, Cuba and Sudan were subject to US sanctions during this time and BNP is accused of violating these embargoes by continuing to do business with large companies selling raw materials, according to Le Figaro's front page.

This would be one of the largest fines imposed on a bank, a few billion euros shy of the fine on JP Morgan last year of 13 billion for selling dodgy mortgage loans, as Le Figaro shows in one of its infographics. Crédit Suisse is in third place at a mere 2.6 billion dollars.

The right-wing paper says this affair is sending a shock through the French establishment, which got away with a clean record during the financial crisis, certainly by comparison with its American equivalent.

But this may not be such a crisis for BNP itself, according to the economic pages of Le Figaro.

The bank has actually been in negotiation with American lawyers since 2010 - even if the information has become public more recently - and BNP has factored this possible fine into its forecasts since then. Details about the punishment will be finalised in the next few weeks but a lawyer tells Le Figaro that the final size of the fine depends not only on the infraction but also how the American justice feels about the behaviour of the company.

Just a very brief analysis from Le Monde's front page editorial of the Egyptian elections

earlier this week, which the paper decribes as a mere "ointment" that cannot help the country's malaise. The editorial concludes that the election was a farce and that in reality nothing has changed with this latest vote, whilst the newly elected Marshall Abdel Fatah Al Sissi maintains his anti-American, anti-Western rhetoric, the same old alliances between political elites remains intact. This schizophrenic behaviour, says the daily, will only further destablise his power.

Away from such glum news, left-wing Libération instead publishes a special dossier on Brazil, just under two weeks ahead of the opening of the World Cup. The editorial, entitled "Clichés", explains that the special edition tries to dig beyond what we know, or think we know about the country, particularly on questions of race, modernity, economic inequality.

If all goes to plan, the World Cup will be an opportunity to give the Brazilian people a chance to showcase their country to the world, in a similar way that the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa was a sort of catharisis for post-apartheid South Africa and the 2006 Football World Cup was the first time that Germany could fly their unified national flag for the first time since World War II, the editorial believes.

Further into the paper Libé provides us with a handy glossary of terms to help get readers excited about the World Cup. This one is handy: B for beer. According to polls football and beer are both Brazilian passions. This is perhaps Libération's way of encouraging people to get into the World Cup spirit Brazilian style!

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