Nicolas Sarkozy tells Luxembourg to take in Roma

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The confrontation between Paris and Brussels over French president Nicolas Sarkozy's anti-Gypsy campaign expanded into a war of words between France and Luxembourg, when Sarkozy told the principality to take in France's unwanted Roma.

Sarkozy was said to have reacted furiously to a verbal broadside from the European commission yesterday. Viviane Reding, the justice commissioner, branded the French policy of deporting Roma a disgrace, appalling, and likened the treatment of the Gypsies to that of the Jews in the second world war. She accused French ministers of duplicity and said she expected disciplinary action against France for breaking EU laws on freedom of movement. Reding is from Luxembourg.

Sarkozy allies emerged from a presidential lunch today to report that the French leader would take the commission to task when he arrives in Brussels for an EU summit tomorrow.

"He says he is only applying European regulations, French laws, and that there is absolutely nothing to criticise France for on the issue," said Bruno Sido, a senator from Sarkozy's UMP party. "But if the Luxembourgers want to take them , there would be no problem."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/nicolas-sarkozy-luxembourg-roma

[WCGreen]

1. Is everyone going crazy.....

[elleng]

2. Yes.

Interesting that she's from Luxembourg.

Too cold up there for the Roma, imo!

:sarcasm:

[Soylent Brice]

4. yes. n/t

[uppityperson]

3. k&r so more can see Sarko the asshole's latest assholery

[nyy1998]

5. Sarkozy just continues to look like a bigger a*****e with each Roma-related move nt

[pampango]

6. "Sarkozy allies" are all conservative and far-right. The Roma are a political football to them.

The deportations are meant to win votes from the National Front's voters and serve as a distraction while Sarkozy puts forward his pension reform plan which has been opposed by the left.

[reggie the dog]

11. you hit the natil on the head

they passed the retirement vote in the night last night yet the newspapers are talking about the illegal deportations of Roma, fucking media choosing not to talk about what is important, well some media anyways, Liberation had the story about the retirement reform vote right on top of the page and stuff about roma farther on

[HuckleB]

7. Wow!

:wow:

[Nihil]

8. That's a fair comment ...

France doesn't want them.
Luxembourg want to stick their oar in.
Luxembourg can have them and everyone's happy.
:shrug:

(Sorry ... couldn't resist the Gallic shrug on this topic :evilgrin:)

[JCMach1]

9. Lux is already 20-25% refugees... Sarkozy once again needs to STFU

[Nihil]

12. Like hell it is ...

Population: 502,202 (2010 estimate - 439,439 in last census in 2001)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg)

Refugees: 3230
Asylum Seekers: 465
Stateless persons: 177

Total = 3872 (as at January 2010)
(http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48eb16.html)

FWIW, this is slowly decreasing as Balkan refugees return home:
"In 1998, there were 4,548 refugees in the nation, making up just
over 1 percent of the population."
(http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Luxembourg.html)

3872 / 502202 = 0.77% :hi:

i.e., you are talking complete bollocks with your "Lux is already 20-25% refugees".

[JCMach1]

13. Ummmm

I found many immigrants there (last visit, summer 2009).



http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=587

I am sure we can agree though that Sarkozy can STFU :hi:

[MellowDem]

14. Immigrants are not refugees....

and as you can see, the number of foriegn residents has stayed steady, only with commuters increasing. They say that Luxembourg becomes part of rance during the work day, since most of the commuters are right next door there. A lot of the foriegn immigrants are from Portugal, but they aren't refugees. Luxembourg is a giant banking center that is one of the wealthiest nations on Earth that imports cheaper labor. Doesn't sound too progressive to me. Sure, they're socialist, but they can afford their nice system for a reason. If they were 20-25% refugees, they would be a pretty poor country.

[JCMach1]

15. Also, as in the other low countries, there are many undocumented

and people from other EU countries. Can't say I blame them. Luxembourg is one country I would love to live in.

[MellowDem]

18. I lived there for six months...

one of the most expensive places to live in the world. When you consider that much of their labor are day laborers who return to another country at night, you can see why that is beneficial to them. Luxembourg gets the economic boost of those workers without having to pay for their social welfare. If about 25% of their labor force are commuters, that means they only have to cover 75% of their labor force with social safety nets. I can't think of too many other countries that have that kind of advantage.

I will say I did like Luxembourg all in all. But I don't see anything particularly admirable about a tiny nation that takes advantage of its unique status to enrich itself. And I wouldn't want to live their permanently as it's just not my culture and not my cup of tea.

[provis99]

17. the Roma aren't refugees, they are immigrants.

[reggie the dog]

10. this asshole is an embarrasment to me

and yes, Roms already live in Luxembourg, seeing as most Roms have Hungarian or Romanian nationality they can travel, work, live in any EU nation they want to, such as France or Luxembourg. I can think of one person of Hungarian ancestory that I would love to send to Luxembourg but I doubt they would take Sarkozy off of our hands.

[pampango]

16. In late news, George Wallace tells Massachusetts to take Alabama's African Americans if its liberals

want to complain about Alabama's treatment its minority population.