The French press reacted to David Cameron’s EU referendum speech on Wednesday with a generous helping of hostility, a touch of ‘rosbif’ ridicule, and a great deal of concern.
In demonstrating the seriousness of the PM’s perilous move, journalists provided their readers with an array of wondrous metaphors. Murder, divorce, religious sacrifice… Who would have thought European politics could be so exciting?
Russian roulette
The prize for the most theatrical metaphor goes to Breton daily Ouest-France, whose journalist Laurent Marchand clearly has a penchant for 1930s gangster movies. “It’s as though Cameron just laid down a gun, loaded with one bullet only, on the EU-member table. Aimed, in principle, at the future of the union,” he wrote. “But it could backfire.”