Quand "Newsweek" fait de Sarkozy le symbole de l'extrême droite européenne. Just how far will France go? Threatened with legal action by the Commission, with precious little backing from her neighbours, France is suffering the fallout from her president’s bellicose anti-Roma rhetoric.
But the other Roma-deporting countries could conceivably help her out of this fix. Roma have now got last-minute billing for the European summit on 16 September in Brussels. Initially, this gathering of the 27 EU heads of state, accompanied by their diplomacy chiefs, was supposed to be entirely about the new European foreign policy. But what with the clash between France and EU institutions getting out of hand, the item was added to the agenda at the 11th hour. This isn’t the first time Paris and Brussels have been at loggerheads. "That’s no way to address a great state" This calamitous crisis mismanagement has basically left France stranded in the middle of the Union. France against the rest of the world? Translated by Eric Rosencrantz. Unity requires basic rights - The Boston Globe. Nicolas Sarkozy in EU rant at Roma insult - mirror.co.uk.
Germany denies Merkel said would clear Roma camps. By Paul Carrel BERLIN Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:20pm BST BERLIN (Reuters) - A European row over France's repatriation of Roma escalated on Friday, pitting President Nicolas Sarkozy against Germany's Angela Merkel, who was forced to deny his assertion Berlin also planned to clear camps.
The dispute, which overshadowed a European Union summit on Thursday, inflamed already tense relations between the leaders of the bloc's two biggest countries, whose contrasting styles often result in friction, despite both being conservatives. Sarkozy said at the summit he had Merkel's support in a row with Brussels, which accuses Paris of breaking EU law by sending Roma migrants back to Romania and Bulgaria. One top EU official went as far as to recall the Nazis' persecution of the Roma. "Madame Merkel indicated to me her desire to proceed with the evacuation of camps in the coming weeks," Sarkozy told reporters at the end of the summit.
Germany has no such camps, the government spokesman said. The Roma: Europe's pariah people. Euro MPs demonstrate on behalf of Roma people in the parliament in Strasbourg.
They show placards which translate as 'equal rights for all citizens'. Photograph: Johanna Leguerre/AFP/Getty Images The Roma, the EU's biggest ethnic minority, scattered across a dozen countries, are Europe's pariah people. Thanks to Nicolas Sarkozy, they are a lot less forgotten and ignored than they were a fortnight ago. The outrage stirred by France's policy of getting EU citizens to sign papers, give them 300 euros, have police escort them on to planes back to Bucharest and Sofia, and call them volunteers has shone a spotlight on the fate of the estimated 12 million Roma in the EU, the vast majority of them in the Balkans and central Europe.
In the democratic revolutions that released that region from Soviet domination 20 years ago, the Roma were the big losers. Now eastern Europe's crisis is morphing into western Europe's Gypsy dilemma, increasing the chances of something being done about it. Roma, on Move, Test Europe’s ‘Open Borders’ - NYTimes.com. Nicolas Sarkozy: The incredible shrinking président. Le « 11h02 » : le clash entre la France et la Commission.
Alemania desmiente el anuncio de Sarkozy de que también deportará gitanos · ELPAÍS.com. La tensa jornada vivida ayer en la cumbre de la UE a cuenta de la política francesa de expulsión de gitanos concluyó con un embrollo diplomático entre París y Berlín.
Tras pelearse a cara de perro con el presidente de la Comisión, José Manuel Durão Barroso, Sarkozy se plantó ante la prensa para subrayar que, pese a la discusión con Barroso, ninguno de los jefes de Estado europeos habían manifestado una crítica directa a su política. Y aludió expresamente a la solidaridad de la canciller Angela Merkel, quien, según él, le anunció que dentro de unas semanas "ella también va a levantar varios campamentos". Poco después, ya en Berlín y ante una posible reacción en su país, el portavoz del Gobierno alemán, Steffen Seibert, negó que Merkel hubiese hablado con Sarkozy en esos términos. París, de momento, no ha reaccionado al desmentido. Sarkozy: "A ver qué dice Reding cuando Alemania levante campamentos" Ningún jefe de Estado se atrevió a censurar lo que está pasando en Francia A gritos.