France – After Clinton’s words about Poland and Hungary, an other former President talked about the two Central European countries. Nicolas Sarkozy defended the Polish and Hungarian democracies and French President François Hollande reacted to this declaration.
In an interview given to the French newspaper Le Monde on May 17, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which is to be one of the presidential candidate of the liberal-right party Les Républicains (LR), said that democracies remain operational in the two Central European nations. “We cannot say that democracy is absent in Hungary. This is a contradiction of French elites, always wanting to lecture the entire world. I saw the Kaczyński brothers in power in Poland. They respected European rules and stepped down from power when defeated. Following fifty years of Communist subjugation, these are operational democracies. They also have to face a large-scale problem by confronting a very significant migratory pressure. The failure of Schengen weighs down upon them primarily. Would you like the Berlin Wall to be rebuilt?” he said.
Nicolas Sarkozy whose father is Hungarian, had good relation with former Hungarian Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. By this statement, he confirms that LR, like tries also the Front National, aims to connect with the alter-European model led by Viktor Orbán. Although, the former French President is really concerned by the rise of the FPÖ in Austria. “The far-right reached 35%. […] How did we arrived there?” asked Sarkozy, before adding that this is the responsibility of these “huge coalitions that the elites love so much. When there is no more left and right, there is no more debate, and that gives a big opportunity to the extremes”. He concluded by stating that “in France, for 25 years now, one can not speak about immigration without being called a racist, about Islam without being called an Islamophobe, or about Europe without being called a Europhobe. What happens now in Austria might happen also in France.”
French liberal-socialist President François Hollande reacted to this interview by simply saying on a radio programme: “I see that a former President of the Republic thinks that what’s happening in Hungary and Poland is wonderful. Well, no, I don’t want a society like this”.
In the same time, Hungarian Foreign Minister added today on May 19, that Clinton’s claims about Hungary are a manifestation of billionaire Hungarian-American financier George Soros’s “dissatisfaction” with the Hungarian government’s policies, since Soros is financing a part of the Clinton’s presidential campaign and therefore has an influence on the Clinton’s.
