French leader threatens G20 walkout and blames "Anglo-Saxons'' for causing crisis

[Yazman]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,25268112-20142,00.html


The French President yesterday threatened to wreck the London summit if France's demands for tougher financial regulation are not met.

France will not accept a G20 that produces a “false success with language that sounds good but contains no commitments”, advisers to Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Asked if this meant a possible walk-out, Xavier Musca, Mr Sarkozy’s deputy chief of staff for economic affairs, said: “A basic rule with nuclear deterrence is that you do not say at what point you will use the weapon.”

The French threat dramatically raised the temperature hours before the US President was due to arrive in London today. If carried through, it would ruin a summit for which British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Barack Obama have high ambitions, believing it vital to international recovery.

Mr Sarkozy, who blames the “Anglo-Saxons” for causing the economic crisis, told his ministers last week that he would leave Mr Brown’s summit “if it does not work out”.

A deal to tighten regulation will be one of the key features of the G20 accord, but France wants a global financial regulator, which is an idea fiercely opposed by the US and Britain. Mr Brown has described the notion as ridiculous.

[Catbus]

Maybe I'm not catching the severity of his proposed actions, but what does it matter if he walks out?

[Nils T.]

One of the main objectives of the summit is to reassure the people of these 20 countries. If one of the guests declare officially that it's all just an act, it's an attack on the credibility of the others.
And also, many of these countries are not so hot on the idea of negociating a common agreement. They are ready to compromise because everyone else accepted it, but if one start to change his mind, they may not leave the summit but they'll probably block any significative decision that could have been reached.

But I don't think that sarkozy will really walk out. Maybe he really hopes that his threat will have an effect on the negociations, but it's home politics that drove him to that : he's been largely criticized (even in his own party) for his recent decision to come back under the NATO command and the independency loss that it could represent. This is an attempt to shut these criticisms, but it's just talk, he doesn't want to upset the others.

[Cumannach]

'anglo-saxon' tut tut. racist.

[mykittyhasaboner]

"Anglo-Saxons"? Wtf Sarkozy?

Racist bastard...

[Bitter Ashes]

Yeah. It does look like a case of "Yeah, we fucked up, but erm... loooook!!! BRITISH! Blame them!!!!"
The funny part is that Gordon Brown has done nothing but backpeddling these last few weeks by saying that he wants more regulation.
Not that it really effects us, but it does show how petty these politicians are and how quickly they'll allocate blame, so long as it's not allocated to where it belongs.

[Charles Xavier]

These international meetings are bullshit anyways, in the last 20 years what has come out of them besides a photo opt and more rights for corporations.

[NecroCommie]

Our enemies are fighting each other! Now is the chance comrades, this is a time for political action!

I think we (the left) should put preassure on France to back up its words. And we should support possible walkout, not because of solidarity to French capital, but to further divide the capitalist camp. Divide and conquer is the name of the game.

[Rjevan]

Does Sarkozy anything else than criticising Germany, Britain and any other country which he reminds of (not that I had any sympathy with Mr Brown or Ms Merkel) and stressing out how active and great he is? If he didn't notice: there are many problems in France, many of them developed under his government and if the French economy would have been that great it would't have been affected that much by "the Anglo-Saxons".

[Yazman]

Our enemies are fighting each other! Now is the chance comrades, this is a time for political action!

I think we (the left) should put preassure on France to back up its words. And we should support possible walkout, not because of solidarity to French capital, but to further divide the capitalist camp. Divide and conquer is the name of the game.

I agree 100%!


if the French economy would have been that great it would't have been affected that much by "the Anglo-Saxons".

This simply isn't true. Capitalism is integrated far too well these days in order for this isolationist mentality to ever work.

[bcbm]

These international meetings are bullshit anyways, in the last 20 years what has come out of them besides a photo opt and more rights for corporations.

These meetings have determined global policy by the major capitalist countries and have a pretty big effect on the six billion people inhabiting this planet. Of course it means more right for corporations but it seems like you're downplaying how important these meetings are. They certainly effect how things go and the protests against them can have an impact as well. The IMF/WB are pretty much dead in the water because of the large protest movements and this carries over to the G8/G20 meetings as well. Though not as dead, they're certainly in a weaker position.

[Mather]

First it's blonde blue eyed bankers (Lula) and now we have the Anglo-Saxons (Sarkozy).

I can see politicians trying to blame everyone and everything but the actual culprit, which is the global capitalist system and all of it's related institutions and individuals, of which both Lula and Sarkozy are a part of.