After David Cameron snubbed François Hollande during his visit to Britain and then promised to “roll out the red carpet“ for French tax avoiders, it’s no surprise that the French president isn’t particularly well-disposed to his British counterpart. But even with that (and France’s failed Olympics bid) in mind, Hollande’s remarks on the London games are still fabulously catty.
In reference to his country’s Olympics success (they’ve won three golds, we’ve won none) and to Cameron’s earlier comments, Hollande declared:
The British have rolled out a red carpet for French athletes to win medals. I thank them very much for that, but the competition is not over.
And there’s more, much more. Turning his attention to the empty seats fiasco, he said:
The problem is that there are simply too many corporate seats. It will be up to French organisers to sort out this problem if a bid for a future games is to be successful.
With magnificent Gallic arrogance, he added: “We don’t talk of money, we talk of gold.”
Finally, in a none-too-subtle reference to Cameron’s euroscepticism, Hollande declared:
It is the results of Europe that will count in the games. We will put the French medals into the Europe pot, so that the British will be happy to be European.
It doesn’t look as if Cameron will be following Ed Miliband to the Élysée Palace anytime soon.
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