Oh crap: Blair kicks off campaign to become EU President

[muriel_volestrangler]

Alex Duval Smith in Paris
Sunday January 13, 2008
The Observer

Tony Blair launched his campaign to become the first fully-fledged President of the European Union yesterday by describing the notion of left- and right-wing politics as redundant.
...
Sarkozy, 52, who appeared at the Palais des Sports rally without his 40-year-old girlfriend, Carla Bruni, offered unequivocal backing for Blair yesterday, describing him as an ideal candidate to run Europe. 'He is intelligent, he is brave and he is a friend. We need him in Europe. How can we govern a continent of 450 million people if the President changes every six months and has to run his own country at the same time? I want a President chosen from the top - not a compromise candidate - who will serve for two-and-a-half years,' added Sarkozy.

A UMP party grandee, Jean-Pierre Rafarin, wrote in yesterday's Le Monde newspaper that Blair's experience in Europe positioned him well for the post. The position of President of the European Council - which meets at head-of-state and government level, usually four times a year - is due to be created by the 27-nation grouping in the second half of 2008, when France will chair EU ministerial meetings.

At the end of this month, Blair will continue his campaign to win the leadership of Europe when he addresses a conference at the Sorbonne of Les Progressistes, a breakaway socialist party group which has joined Sarkozy's government. Blair is also due to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this month.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2240066,00.html{/div]

:banghead:

Why can't the fucker just leave us alone, and count his dollars?

[fedsron2us]

1. One good reason to leave the EU

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. Look at this speech of his

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2240063,00.html

'Europe is not a question of left or right, but a question of the future or the past, of strength or weakness,' said the former British Prime Minister, speaking in French.

In his most important speech since leaving Downing Street last June, addressing 2,000 supporters of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Blair said globalisation was eradicating traditional party lines and class distinctions and rendering old political remedies obsolete. 'It's about today versus yesterday. Less about politics and more about a state of mind; open as opposed to closed,' he said.

Which is to say, absolutely nothing.

[non sociopath skin]

3. The pic of Bliar and Sarko the Psycho on the front of the Observer this morning ...

... nearly made me barf up my scrambled eggs.

Looked like two hungry lizards basking on a rock.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

4. Ugh...

and just as I'd firmly decided that I was pro-Europe (reading Pipes and Steyn' horrific views about decadent secular welfare-loving Europe has that effect!)

I hope the other countries refuse to have him in charge. Sarkozy seems to be his only real friend.

[T_i_B]

5. Tony Blair 'cannot be president of EU'

In any case, am I the only one who finds it odd that the former PM gets more interest from people then the current one?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=K1NQHOFZSTQXJQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/18/nblair118.xml

Tony Blair should not be president of Europe, two former French leaders have declared in response to the backing the former prime minister has been given by Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France.

Valérie Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president and the father of the now defunct EU constitutional treaty, said that Europe's first president must have majority support from his home country, which should be a nation that "respects all its European commitments". Something that he claimed Britain did not do.

"Tony Blair cannot be president of Europe," agreed Edouard Balladur, the former conservative French prime minister close to Mr Sarkozy, writing in yesterday's Le Monde newspaper.

Despite his "declarations of good intent," for 10 years, Mr Blair "did nothing to put an end to Britain's special status", with its opt-outs in the fields of justice and home affairs and non-membership of the euro and border-free Schengen zone. Moreover, he went on, Mr Blair is far too close to America to build an independent Europe.