FRENCH ELECTION UPDATE: Sarkozy supports Olympics in Beijing: ROYAL WOULD BOYCOTT

The Times of India ^ | April 26 2007 | staff

[Cincinna]

PARIS: French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to press China on its human rights record if elected and said the Olympics will bring a "breath of liberty" to the Asian giant.

"We have the duty - I don't say right - the duty to ask questions of the status of political prisoners, of democracy," he told TF1 television on Wednesday.

He said he fully supported the holding of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"I consider that the sporting event is going to bring an extraordinary breath of freedom and that China will be forced to change," said Sarkozy.

His rival in France's May 6 presidential runoff vote, Socialist Segolene Royal, has urged France and the international community to lobby Beijing to put pressure on its trading partner, Sudan, over the violence in its Darfur region before the summer Games.

Royal said on Wednesday she would not rule out the possibility of a French boycott of the 2008 Olympics over the issue.

"The threat of (boycotting) the Olympic Games must be taken up," she said in an interview on France-television. "We know that China is an important player in that part of the world. I think there need to be very firm threats."

Sarkozy said Sudanese leaders will have to answer before international law.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Well the pastry competition would be blown wide open!

[You Dirty Rats]

If Royal is channeling Jimmy Carter then she is truly desperate.

[montag813]

echoed former challenger Francois Bayrou in saying that a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing is possible if China does not act to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan

Am I missing something here? What the heck does China have to do with the Muslim Nazis in Sudan? Why don't they blast Iran instead?

[not2worry]

The best we can hope for if Royal wins is that she sends the Liberal French’s white flag to Iran to show her anti-American support of democracy in the Mid-East.

[Vicomte13]

Sudan has oil.
China is frantic to sew up its oil supplies.
Sudan has a government everybody despises, making it isolated, making it willing to deal with the Chinese.
The Chinese don’t give a crap what people do to other people in their own countries so long as they can sew up the oil.
That’s what China has to do with The Sudan.

[montag813]

The Chinese don’t give a crap what people do to other people in their own countries so long as they can sew up the oil.

Nor do we. Don't be naive.

[SunkenCiv]

Socialist candidate Segolene Royal has recently echoed former challenger Francois Bayrou in saying that a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing is possible if China does not act to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan...

Wanna see the rich, tax-dodging, socialist baby machine change her tune about Sudan? Deploy US troops there. :')

[M. Espinola]

"It points out once again, Royal’s inexperience and lack of depth and vision in Foreign Policy. Will a call for a boycott of Israel be next?"

I would not put it past the voter seeking left to pull an anti-Israeli stunt such as that.

Final Round of French Presidential Elections Is Wide Open

"Algerian journalist Caci Djerbib points out that, in a country with a total population of 60 million, France has one million residents of Algerian descent whose interests are also at stake in the election. Mr. Djerbib says the Algerians' greatest concern is integration – making sure that those who are permanent residents have the same rights as French citizens.

Europe's Islamist-Leftist Alliance, Part III (4/29/2007)