Evening Standard, this afternoon:
France today laughed off a claim that Nicolas Sarkozy had threatened to “walk out” of the G20 summit. They said a report that the French President could “wreck” the event as “unfounded, and like some kind of April Fool’s joke”.
The copy of Le Figaro that I found outside my hotel room this morning:
«Rien ne serait pire qu’un G20 a minima. Je préfère le clash au consensus mou … Si ça n’avance pas à Londres, ce sera la chaise vide ! Je me lèverai et je partirai»
Now I admit my French may only by GCSE standard (and pretty rusty at that) – but I’m fairly confident that this translates more or less as follows:
Nothing would be worse than a minimal G20. I prefer the clash to the soft consensus. If things don’t move forward in London, it will be the empty chair! I’ll get up and I’ll leave.
