Strychnine
04-17-2009, 12:36 AM
LOL, fucking FRANCE...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6106250.ece
Fom Times Online
April 16, 2009
Sarkozy snipes at 'dim' Spanish PM and German Chancellor
(Sergio Perez/Reuters)
After attempting to remove the gloss from Barack Obama, President Sarkozy of France upset Spain today by suggesting that Jose-Luis Zapatero, the Prime Minister, was a little dim.
Mr Sarkozy's latest put-down of fellow leaders emerged from a Wednesday lunch meeting with MPs at which he again boasted of what he sees as his pivotal role in the G20 summit. He cast President Obama as inexperienced and ineffectual - a line that he has taken in private since the the London meeting and the Nato gathering in Strasbourg that followed it.
Mr Sarkozy noted that Spain's Socialist government had just announced the end of advertising on state television, a year after Mr Sarkozy did the same for France.
"And you know who they cited as the example?" he asked the 24 MPs around his lunch table at the Elysée Palace, according to an account in the Libération newspaper.
A Socialist MP interjected: "You can say a lot of things about Zapatero.." Mr Sarkozy riposted: "Perhaps he's not very clever. But I know people who were very clever and who did not make the second round of the presidential election." That was a reference to Lionel Jospin, the former French Socialist leader who was eliminated in the first round in 2002.
"The important thing in democracy is to be re-elected. Look at [Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi. He has been re-elected three times," Mr Sarkozy said, according to Libération.
France's "hyper-president" also took a swipe at Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, saying that she had only decided to side with him on his approach to the economic crisis after realising how badly German industry and banks were doing. "She did not have any other choice but to rally to my position," he said.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese President of the European Commission, also came in for a Sarkozy slap. He was "totally absent from the G20" discussions, Mr Sarkozy was quoted as saying. The President has been gunning for Mr Barroso for weeks and does not support his re-appointment when the Commission is renewed next autumn.
On the US President, Mr Sarkozy said: "Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic. But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry. There are a certain number of things on which he has no position. And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency," he said.
The US President had underperformed on climate change, said Mr Sarkozy: "I told him: 'I don't think that you have quite understood what we are doing on carbon dioxide'."
In another swipe at the American leader, Mr Sarkozy was quoted today making a dubious joke about the Obamania sweeping the European media. According to L'Express news magazine, Mr Sarkozy talked to another set of visitors about Mr Obama's planned visit to the Normandy beaches in June, Mr Sarkozy said: "I am going to ask him to walk on the Channel and he'll do it, you'll see."
Commentators say that Mr Sarkozy has decided to re-cast France and himself back in its old role of counter-balance to American power after two years in which he brought Paris closer to Washington than any French president for decades.
France has been needling America on several fronts over the past week, calling for the first time for a headquarters in Brussles for a new European defence force and leaking a complaint by a US Under-Secretary of State to Paris about Mr Obama's excessively "soft" approach to Iran.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6106250.ece
Fom Times Online
April 16, 2009
Sarkozy snipes at 'dim' Spanish PM and German Chancellor
(Sergio Perez/Reuters)
After attempting to remove the gloss from Barack Obama, President Sarkozy of France upset Spain today by suggesting that Jose-Luis Zapatero, the Prime Minister, was a little dim.
Mr Sarkozy's latest put-down of fellow leaders emerged from a Wednesday lunch meeting with MPs at which he again boasted of what he sees as his pivotal role in the G20 summit. He cast President Obama as inexperienced and ineffectual - a line that he has taken in private since the the London meeting and the Nato gathering in Strasbourg that followed it.
Mr Sarkozy noted that Spain's Socialist government had just announced the end of advertising on state television, a year after Mr Sarkozy did the same for France.
"And you know who they cited as the example?" he asked the 24 MPs around his lunch table at the Elysée Palace, according to an account in the Libération newspaper.
A Socialist MP interjected: "You can say a lot of things about Zapatero.." Mr Sarkozy riposted: "Perhaps he's not very clever. But I know people who were very clever and who did not make the second round of the presidential election." That was a reference to Lionel Jospin, the former French Socialist leader who was eliminated in the first round in 2002.
"The important thing in democracy is to be re-elected. Look at [Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi. He has been re-elected three times," Mr Sarkozy said, according to Libération.
France's "hyper-president" also took a swipe at Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, saying that she had only decided to side with him on his approach to the economic crisis after realising how badly German industry and banks were doing. "She did not have any other choice but to rally to my position," he said.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese President of the European Commission, also came in for a Sarkozy slap. He was "totally absent from the G20" discussions, Mr Sarkozy was quoted as saying. The President has been gunning for Mr Barroso for weeks and does not support his re-appointment when the Commission is renewed next autumn.
On the US President, Mr Sarkozy said: "Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic. But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry. There are a certain number of things on which he has no position. And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency," he said.
The US President had underperformed on climate change, said Mr Sarkozy: "I told him: 'I don't think that you have quite understood what we are doing on carbon dioxide'."
In another swipe at the American leader, Mr Sarkozy was quoted today making a dubious joke about the Obamania sweeping the European media. According to L'Express news magazine, Mr Sarkozy talked to another set of visitors about Mr Obama's planned visit to the Normandy beaches in June, Mr Sarkozy said: "I am going to ask him to walk on the Channel and he'll do it, you'll see."
Commentators say that Mr Sarkozy has decided to re-cast France and himself back in its old role of counter-balance to American power after two years in which he brought Paris closer to Washington than any French president for decades.
France has been needling America on several fronts over the past week, calling for the first time for a headquarters in Brussles for a new European defence force and leaking a complaint by a US Under-Secretary of State to Paris about Mr Obama's excessively "soft" approach to Iran.