Sarkozy on Turkey, lying with every breath

When I was looking up quotations by various public figures earlier today on the subject of the admission of Turkey into the EU, I ran into some contradictory statements by President Sarkozy, and asked Tiberge of Galliawatch about it:

LA to Tiberge:

In September 2007 you showed him switching from his previous supposed opposition to Turkey membership, to support or quasi support for membership.

But now look what he says, that he totally opposes membership, as he “always” has done!

“I have always opposed Turkey’s EU admission and I have not changed my position.”

Can one make sense out of this, other than by saying that Sarko is just being Sarko, i.e., a sui generis swine?

Tiberge replies:

I can make perfectly good sense out of it. He is lying—it’s that simple. Now that the EU elections are upon us everybody is taking an anti-Turkey stand, but few are being fooled (at least among the bloggers I read). His Minister of Agriculture Michel Barnier, who is running in Ile-de-France, has recently been exposed as being very pro-Turkey despite his recent comment that he had changed his mind, and was now opposed to membership. Sarkozy, all the while saying he is opposed, always comes up with consolation prizes for Turkey—special status, privileges, and closer than close relations with France, in the event Turkey does not gain accession. So it really doesn’t matter if Turkey is in or out.

The news about Barnier is a minor bombshell in France, though he has been such a Eurocrat for so long that no one should be surprised.

Philippe de Villiers has said (it was just put online a few minutes ago) that Sarkozy made the following remarks to him:

“You have intuition, I have the figures. And your intuition is confirmed by my figures. The Islamization of Europe is inevitable. Be careful: it’s a process that won’t happen overnight. It will take a few decades.”

You may find these recent posts (here and here) helpful:

I’m working now on the Barnier flap and Villiers’ revelations, but it will probably not be posted until tomorrow.

The only hope is that the pro-sovereignty parties make a good showing on Sunday, and at least make it more difficult for Sarkozy to lie with a straight face.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 04, 2009 11:06 PM | Send