IT will be interesting to see what the weekend polls in France show about President Sarkozy's fierce defence of the honour of France against the attack on its expulsion of Roma immigrants by the European Commissioner Viviane Reding. It is quite possible that he will receive close to 100 per cent support by a public that has already shown it is in favour of his policy on this issue and that will have been incensed that the criticism was by the EU Commissioner who happens to come from neighbouring Luxembourg, of all places.
Mr Sarkozy may be thinking that this controversy will put an end to his recent sliding support on almost all other political counts. It may do so, but on the other hand he has to keep in mind that France takes over the presidency of the G8 and G20 international groups in November and member states hoping for constructive solutions to key financial and trade matters will not want a chairman who is at war with his fellow Europeans. As matters stand France denies that the Roma evictions are targetted whereas the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso insists that they are just that and offend against Human Rights and freedom of movement provisions which he is responsible for protecting. Ms Reding exacerbated the dispute by comparing France's actions to Nazi expulsion of Roma in WWII but that wild accusation does not affect the central issue that she raised.
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