Thu, 23 April 11:00 2009

President Sarkozy’s verdict on Zapatero

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More News from the Costa Blanca

Scathing comments: The French President appears to

By Annie Maples
DID the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, really remark that Jose Rodriguez Zapatero, president of the Spanish government, was “not very intelligent”, during an inter-party luncheon held to brief French parliamentarians on the outcome of the G20 summit?
According to a spokesman, the president said nothing of the kind and, significantly, there was no attempt made to deny any other off-the-cuff and supposedly off-the-record character references made by the president during the meal on April 15.
Sarkozy’s alleged comments that Angela Merkel “had no option but to come round to my way of thinking”, after she grasped that the state of Germany’s banks and car industries were judged to be unwelcome and overweening. Nevertheless, the president’s patronising words provoked little reaction in Germany, although the same could not be said for Sarkozy’s verdict on Zapatero’s brainpower, which was greeted in Spain with glee or resentment - depending on political preferences.
According to the French paper, Liberation, Zapatero entered the picture during the luncheon after Sarkozy took the credit for Zapatero’s recent decision to phase out advertising on Spain’s state-run television channels. A self-congratulory Sarkozy asked rhetorically, “You know who he’s taken as an example?”, upon which the socialist, Henri Emmanuelli, butted in with an enthusiastic, “There is a lot to be said for Zapatero”.
According to Liberation’s allegedly impeccable sources, Sarkozy rapidly retorted, “Perhaps he’s not very intelligent”. By then, the convivial lunch had reached the dessert stage, which doubtless accounted for the president’s loosened tongue. He continued with a pointed, “but I know people who were very clever and did not make the second round of the presidential election”, in a side-swipe specifically aimed at Lionel Jospin, France’s former socialist prime minister.
President Sarkozy is not noted for measuring his words and, at the same lunch party, not only Angela Merkel and Zapatero were despatched with habitual verbal thrusts. Of Barack Obama, Sarkozy said that he had, “a subtle intelligence”, but had never run a state or an authority before and there were “numerous things which he hasn’t a position on.” Neither, pronounced Sarkozy, was Obama, “always up to scratch with decisions and efficiency.” The Portuguese president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was felled by the withering comment that he was “totally absent” from the G20 discussions.
Undiluted praise was reserved only for Tony Blair and the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, plus approval for Gordon Brown.
Despite Sarkozy’s indirect compliment in implying that Zapatero was clever enough to win two elections, neither the socialist government’s supporters nor all of its detractors saw beyond the initial insult. Mariano Rajoy, leader of the Partido Popular opposition party, commented, “Sarkozy might be right,” but Luis Herrero, a Euro MP for the PP, said that Sarkozy’s opinion of Zaptero did matter to him. “I am Spanish and he is the president of my country’s government”.
During a radio programme, Herrero said that the next time he met Sarkozy, he’d look down at him and ask contemptuously, “What’s your problem, Shorty?”
During the same programme, another Euro MP, Josu Ortuondo, of the Basque Nationalist Party sprang less fiercely to Zapatero’s defence. Agreeing that Sarkozy had spoken rashly, he pointed out that the proposed Audiovisual Law was a carbon copy of France’s. “He was right about that,” said Ortuondo.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, make an official visit to Spain on April 27 and 28, when he can put the record straight or make his excuses - whichever is deemed more appropriate.

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Written by dave, April 23, 2009

The last time a french emperor marched into Spain, the Brits had to kick him out so if you have any problems with Shorty in Madrid, you know who to call!