Sarkozy Almost Sorry for Branding Roma Criminals

Nicolas Sarkozy, French President and `Union pour un Mouvement Populaire` (UMP) party candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections, delivers a speech in front of local elected during a political rally, in Paris, France, 11 April 2012. EPA/BGNES

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who seeks re-election April 22, has for the first time expressed regrets for vehement remarks stigmatizing the Roma community residing in France.

In the summer of 2010, the French government embarked on a highly controversial campaign of dismounting Roma camps and repatriating hundreds of foreign Roma to Bulgaria and Romania that raised an outcry in the EU.

A circular letter from the French Ministry of Interior was also leaked, in which officers received instructions to specifically target Roma in their operations to ensure security in communities.

It was then that President Sarkozy gave a scandalous speech in Grenoble deploring people he termed as "brigands" and asking for an end to what he called "the savage encampments of the Roma."

In an election interview for the French edition Le Dauphin? lib?r? published Wednesday, Sarkozy stated that today he would deliver the exact same speech, albeit without mentioning any specific community.

Le Figaro has stressed that this is the first ever expression of regret on the matter on Sarkozy's part, calling it "a timid admission of guilt" and "the beginning of a mea culpa."

In the interview, when asked whether he would pronounce again the Grenoble speech, the French President answered: "Yes, but without referring to one particular community."

"Security is first among rights," Sarkozy then adds, clarifying that he remains "totally mobilized in this field, especially on proposals for hardening of punishment and the reform of court practice with minors that must put an end to their perception of impunity."

Le Figaro recalls that Sarkozy's controversial Grenoble speech caused disquietude even among some of his cabinet members and his Union for a Popular Movement MPs.

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