France turns new face to US, world
President-elect Sarkozy has an ambitious foreign agenda, in addition to planned reforms at home.
from the May 8, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Sarkozy's adamant opposition to Turkish membership in the EU was one of the strongest position's taken by any French candidate on foreign policy during the election. He declared Turkey "part of Asia-Minor" and said it should not be allowed into the Union. The question is extremely sensitive at a time when Turkey, embroiled in a debate over its secular status, is unclear about its own future after 40 years of negotiating for EU membership. Sarkozy's "Mediterranean Union" is considered a conciliatory gesture, though details are not yet known.
"It is one thing to say that Turkey isn't part of the EU," says Mr. Bozo. "It is another to stop the negotiation process. I don't think he can do that."
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged Sarkozy not to interfere with the EU talks. "In regard to both the European Union process and the French-Turkish relations, our wish is that from now on we do not see the same statements that Sarkozy has made in election meetings in our bilateral relations," Mr. Erdogan told reporters Monday.
'We know we're behind' EU neighbors
French voters have been uneasy at the perceived decline of France's traditional clout overseas. France has traditionally been regarded as "punching above its weight" in international affairs, but has suffered setbacks over its opposition to the Iraq war, the 2005 EU vote, and its industry has not kept pace with Germany's.
Typical of the popular view in France about what Sarkozy can achieve is Pedro-Louis, an aerospace engineer from Paris who didn't want to give his last name: "I voted to reform France's culture, so that we can be strong again," he says. "When I talk with my German and English colleagues, they see France as a big, beautiful country. But we know we are now behind them. Germany has taken and integrated an entire country, the East. We need a stronger spirit of enterprise to compete. We need to be stronger in Europe, because Europe competes with itself. But France needs to be strong country in the world as well."
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