Sarkozy Attacks Czech Refusal To Fly EU Flag

The French president sided with federalist Euro-MPs who are engaged in a bitter feud with Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and a Eurosceptic.

Senior MEPs, including the president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, caused a diplomatic incident ten days ago after demanding that Mr Klaus hoist the European flag over his residence during bad tempered talks in Prague.

"It was a wound, it was an outrage to see that flags had been taken down from public buildings," said President Sarkozy, the current holder of the EU's six-month rotating presidency which he hands over to the Czech Republic in January.

"Mr Poettering can count on the full support of the French president."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Paralogos]

When Sarkozy is playing "me too" with Cohn-Bendit, you know he's losing it. Cohn-Bendit is a total aberration in French Politics, a committed libertarian-ecologist-Eurofederalist. He flies off the handle more often that I'd like but I have a lot of respect for the guy. Sarkozy has historically had nothing but contempt for the European Union except when it serves his domestic political purposes. Maybe Sarko is desperate to ensure that the not-very-successful French presidency of the Union won't be followed by a visibly successful Czech presidency.

[Bjarni]

Vaclav Klaus is a libertarian, Thomas Jefferson was a libertarian, Nigel Farage is a libertarian, Ron Paul is a libertarian.
Cohn-Bendit is most definately not a libertarian.

Libertarians believe in open trade not requiring thousands of pages to allow international trading.
Libertarians believe in the peoples right to their money they earn and in peoples right to lead their life without the government telling them what to do and how to do it. And that the governments only purpose is to uphold law that has to do with one party in the case being harmed. Whether it be physially or financially.
And all Libertarians oppose the EU
Cohn-Bendit is pro Lisbon Treaty (Which would abolish distinctions between member states) and want that to be done without Referrendums.

[Paralogos]

Being a libertarian isn't necessarily, nor was it originally primarily, about property rights.

Cohn-Bendit is obsessed with citizen's civil rights and protections from big government as well as big business. That's wrongfooted him pretty often with much of the rest of the French Green movement, who are classically pro-government leftists. In French, where the Ayn Rand fringe hasn't taken over that bit of the political space, it's called being "libertaire", which is the translation of "libertarian".

And, I might note, if "thousands of pages" of regulations had been in place on international financial markets a year or two ago, the current worldwide depression would have been largely contained to the US.

[Atcha]

Even though I'm not a fan of Sarkozy I must point out that the European press has unanimously praised his European presidency...as for Sarko having contempt for the EU, that's not true either, he wasn't distinguishing himself from his predecessors prior to his presidency, and he now seems to have realized that the European scene gives him a larger audience and playground, so he's not likely to back down from his new stage now

[watchingthings]

Mr Sarkozy dosn't seem to have his spin and magic anymore. Maybe the magic has faded and all he has left is spin. All that's left is just another politician.

[dbawden]

This guy has aged 10 years.

[OCaptainMercaptan]

i was about to say that this is the most unflattering image of Sarkozy I've ever seen.

[dotmafia]

he probably keeps his wife up all night every night. i know i would!

[booboo111]

Probably caused by that telephone conversation with sarah palin.....

[wadenelson1]

Sarkozy is a genius. Instead of getting wrapped up in unwinnable battles he goes for the purely symbolic ones where a win or loss means

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

This guy's political savvy is never ending. Unlike, say, GWB.

[Atcha]

No he's not that good, those kind of issues are considered completely futile in France, he won't mark points with that kind of talk

[The Impartial]

Here Sarkozy loses to GWB, because the Czech Republic prez wants to fly the U.S. flag (ref. the missile shield).

[tomas0808]

Sarko is Creepy

[waywuwei]

This is a very interesting article. I have to ask in my ignorance: Why should any European head of state "have" to fly the flag of a extra national organization? Do we have to fly the NAFTA flag? Is this a tacit acknowledgement that nations in Europe have ceased to exist as such and are now under the control of the European Union?

[nogimmicks]

Good point. A gradual and virtually invisible transition from a lowering the boundaries between several independent states to an oppressive Federation. Wasn't that the idea?

[Paralogos]

You realize, of course, that these were precisely the sentiments of those who were opposed replacing the Articles of Confederation with the oppressive US Constitution in 1787.

[Atcha]

They have to fly it when they are presidents of the EU, it's a rotating presidency at it's the Czechs turn from January to June 2009, but no one ever paid attention to those things before, flags don't matter in Europe as they do in the US, so Sarkozy (who is of Czech origin) is raising a non existant issue to make some noise

[maud nilsen]

For the record: Sarkozy is not of Czech origin but of Hungarian origin. The two countries have a somewhat different history, very different languages and, mainly, people with totally different mentalities. For Czechs, think Antonin Dvorak and beer. For Hungarians, think chardash and szegedin gulash.

[berryessence]

UUUMMM IF THE EU IS YOUR CURRENCY AND INCLUDE THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES...WHY NOT?