President Sarkozy spoke to a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday, receiving lots of applause and even standing ovations from the American lawmakers for his speech.
“President Sarkozy has hit a home run out of the ballpark,” said Representative Tom Lantos, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “I expect a spectacular renaissance in French-American relations.”
the whole speech (nysun)
some accounts of the speech from the press:
nytimes
Le Monde
BBC
What do you think of Sarkozy's speech? What should be the nature of the Franco-American alliance? What are your predictions about the future relationship between the two countries? Do you anticipate the "spectacular renaissance" that Lantos predicts?
(nb: please be sure to be respectful in the comments and vive le discours!)
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7 comments:
I was relieved when I heard that our president Nicolas Sarkozy made a good impression and has managed to seduce the US Congress. I just read his speech which I found remarkable. I am very proud of him. He is a great president, he speaks well, he is frank in his remarks, goes to the point. He came at the right moment, because with our previous president Chirac, relations with USA were not that rosy and this since 2003! We should not forget that Sarkozy, despite the fact that he is considered by many of us, as “sarkozy l’américain”or as” BUSH admirer”, he adopted the same position as Chirac, he was also against the war in Iraq. And even if Sarko said nice things to America, Sarko made it clear that France will help USA whenever she needed help, BUT at the same time France is an independent state that decides by itself.
It's true that with the war in Iraq, the relationship between USA and France fairly cooled. Being against that war, I had been happy with the reaction of our former President, Jacques Chirac, and of the speech delivered by De Villepin.
But the distance between these two countries made me sad too,because of our long and common history, and I'm really happy today if they can be closer.
The speech of Sarkozy is a real example of diplomacy: the relationship between us gets better, but France keeps her independance.
In this way, he fixes the difficulties born with the Iraq war, and at the same time, he remains faithful to his convictions, and to the French people's too.
However, I don't think we can compare Sarkozy to Chirac, because their behavior corresponds to 2 very different periods: the war, with the categorical refusal to the French people to support this war and after the war, the time to fix the bridge between these two "friends-countries".
Moreover, everybody knows that French people is not the greatest fan of the "next former" President of the USA, Bush Junior... ;)and I really think, that with the new President, the friendship between us is going to be back soon, like it could have been before (I think especially to Bill Clinton, whom we liked (and still like) very much!!!)
Long live the "franco -américaine friendship!!!
A friendship between France and America?Of course...such a speech?so ridiculous!Intellectual masturbation...easier than acting to resolve real problems
It is of course a good thing that relations between France and USA are better... But I think it is a problem to see that in contradiction our relations with Germany are very bad 'cause Sarkozy and Merkel hate each others, and I think it is more important to have good relations with our main european partner. Moreover, relations between Sarkozy and Bush is not so important because in few months new elections will be done in USA with a new president probably democrat and Sarkozy will have problems to have good relations with him if he continues to be friend with the most impopular president of the world.
M. Sarkozy has seized a wonderful opportunity to give a new impulse to foreign relations between the USA and France; as a french citizen I welcome this move. But with such a speech does he represent the french opinion? I can only speek for myself: I find this speech ridiculous and at times worrying. When the Congress applauded and gave standing ovations to Sarkozy it was only congratulating itself. How much did Sarkozy have to dismiss? He doesn't seem to have a fondness for the french welfare state where you can "come and everything will be given to you"... Don't ask what France can do for you but what you can do for France! People don't ask America for anything because thy love her so much; oh! except maybe for Martin Luther King who just asked to make that dream a bit more of a reality. But since he has "made America a universal role model" and "America changed". Still this is harmless talk compared to his admiration for America's "spirit of conquest" and the great "human adventure" that went with it. Of course America was unhabited and free to conquer -still ironic- but such admiration brings back to mind periods of french history that we shouldn't be proud of. "America feels it has the vocation to inspire the world. Because she is the most powerful country in the world": Imperial logic!
That speech was well written and very touching... Of course we will never forget that the american boys came in Europe to save us during the World War. All french people agrees with that but that's not because we are thanksful that we have to agree with every ideas or actions of G W Bush. I think that we are lucky that Sarkozy was not our président in 2003 because we would probably have partiticipate to the war in Irak. Compare to the USA, France is such a small country that I don't think that the fact that we are friends or not is important for the USA... Bush was happy of the speech because for once someone said something nice to him, and for once, someone seemed to admire him. Sarkozy admires so much the american model that his speech was more made to seduce G W Bush than to have any utility for France. This speech was only in his interest. It was just his dream to speak at the congress. I think that it is a bad idea to try to be friends with the USA, having good relations is enough. It does not involve to flatter the american people as Sarkozy did. The american model is not so examplary. We don't need the americans, we need a real Europe. No offence.
Isn't Nicolas Sarkozy a bit late trying to make George i'm-the-world's-ruler Bush his best friend ?
He's leaving the office in less than a year .
Relations between the two countries cooled of regarding war in Irak , but we all know that in this globalized world , real interests ( such as economics ) fly well over these politic frictions .
And indeed , rejecting a unilateral american vision of world ( as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad puts it ,lol) was a true piece of bravery by our former president and former Prime Minister . They held their heads facing America , and this situation surely humbled some american governors .
But we all know that these two countries are far from becoming arch-rivals or bitter enemies .
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