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French press review 20 June 2015

Greeks withdraw their savings as the country's default on its debt and possible exit from the euro looms and Nicolas Sarkozy's metaphor about migrants and "burst pipes" sparks outcry about the dangers of whipping up anti-European sentiment.

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We begin with revelations by Le Figaro that the Greeks are preparing for the worst ahead of Monday’s fresh round of emergency talks with its creditors. The country is facing default and a possible exit from the euro and even from the European Union.

Le Figaro reports that Athens is desperate to unlock the last 7.2 billion euro tranche of its international bailout in the crisis meeting with its euro zone partners, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the 11th - hour deal. With just two weeks left for Greece to break the deadlock with its creditors, the conservative publication says all Athens has shown is defiance.

It quotes Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's office as saying that "those who invest in crisis and terror scenarios will be proven wrong". According to Le Figaro, the statement was issued as reports surfaced that cash withdrawals from troubled banks had beaten all records. Savers reportedly took out one billion euros on Thursday alone, bringing total withdrawals by Friday to 2.6 billion over three days, the newspaper citing findings by the financial website Euro2day.

The national dailies are all about the populist comments made by the leader of the main opposition party “Les Republicains,”  and ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy comparing the influx of migrants into Europe to water gushing from a burst pipe.

Sarkozy used the metaphor during a public meeting in a Paris suburb on Friday as he slammed the European Commission's plan to divide up the asylum seekers arriving in their thousands off the coast of Italy, Greece and Malta aboard rickety, overcrowded boats from North Africa and the Middle East.

This is what he said "the pipe bursts in the kitchen and the repair man comes and says: 'I’ve got the solution. We'll keep half the water in the kitchen and put a quarter of it in the living room and the other quarter in the parents' bedroom. If that doesn't sort things out then the rest can go in the children's room.”

President Francois Hollande wasted not time in issuing a strong rebuke calling for gravity and restraint in public debate. Prime Minister Manuel Valls also warned that "political life deserves better than such stigmatising phrases."

This morning’s issue of Libération used the clash as a launching pad of an inspiring reflection about the quality of political debate in France wondering if this is a circus game or democracy in action. French historian Marcel Gauchet tells the paper it is impossible to have a serene and constructive and respectful debate in France's current context.

But the left-leaning newspaper holds in an editorial that Sarkozy’s use of the metaphor to describe presumed leaks in pipes which the pitiful plumbers in Brussels can’t repair is the clearest evidence that there are leaks in his own ideas.

For the paper, the remarks also illustrate the verbal incontinence of elected officials who instead of exercising power spend much of the time babbling and playing the rock star. Still, Libération believes that despite the culture of clashes spreading on television and social media networks, debate is very much alive in the country.

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