Sarkozy’s staff fabricates apology
Apologizing is never easy. That’s why you get others to do it for you — if you’re the president of France. Over the weekend, President Nicolas Sarkozy was caught on film cursing at a member of the crowd during his appearance at France’s annual agricultural fair. According to Reuters: Sarkozy offered his hand to a ...
Apologizing is never easy. That's why you get others to do it for you -- if you're the president of France.
Apologizing is never easy. That’s why you get others to do it for you — if you’re the president of France.
Over the weekend, President Nicolas Sarkozy was caught on film cursing at a member of the crowd during his appearance at France’s annual agricultural fair. According to Reuters:
Sarkozy offered his hand to a man who said: “Don’t touch me, you are soiling me.” In reply, Sarkozy said, without dropping his smile: “Get lost, dumb ass.”
Watch the incident here:
In an interview following the incident, a journalist from Le Parisien asked the president if he thought his reaction on Saturday appropriate. Sarkozy would not excuse himself for his heated reaction — so his office did it for him, inserting an apology into the version of the interview to be published. Despite Sarkozy’s silence on the matter, the interview that appeared in Le Parisien on Tuesday quoted him as saying, “It would have been better if I had not responded to him.”
Apparently, it’s common practice for French politicians to edit their own interviews before publication. Recalling interviews with Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand, a journalist present at the Sarkozy interview said:
Sarkozy changes rather less. At least he doesn’t touch the questions.”
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