Keywords

Fighting Words

Politics

Guest post by tf

I have been silent since my brief guest blogging, but I could not let this oversight by The New York Times go unremarked. Elaine Sciolino reported on the fighting words uttered by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in the National Assembly on Tuesday, June 20th. Addressing François Hollande, the leader of the Socialist oppostion, he proclaimed:

I denounce, Mr. Hollande, the superficiality, and I would even say, looking at you, cowardice! Cowardice! There is in your attitude, I say it again, cowardice!

At which point the Socialists stomped out. But this is only part of what de Villepin said. Sciolino failed to report on the beginning of his short outburst [my translation of the French from Reuters]:

Mr. Hollande, there are moments in a democracy when one cannot say just anything… There are moments, Mr. Hollande, in a democracy, when one cannot mix carrots and cauliflowers!

Surely, it is this particular remark that got the opposition all steamed?

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