Ties between Sarkozy and army hit fresh low
Wednesday 02 July 2008
Two weeks after French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a major shake-up of France's defence, a shooting incident in Carcassonne has further cooled relations between the president and the army.
Ties between Sarkozy and army hit fresh low
By Armen GeorgianWednesday 02 July 2008
There’s more to the French army chief of staff’s resignation than meets the eye.
Officially, Bruno Cuche stepped down over Sunday’s incident in Carcassonne, southern France, in which a soldier mistakenly fired live rounds into a crowd during a mock hostage rescue.
But sources close to the chief of staff say Cuche’s move should be seen as a protest against an outburst by the French president.
After the shooting, Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told Cuche and other top brass, “you are not responsible people, you are not professional !” The perception was that he had besmirched the army as a whole, even though he was referring to a specific incident.
The Carcassonne fiasco can only increase tensions between Sarkozy and the army. It’s uneasy about his plans to cut France’s defence budget and slash ground troops by 17 percent. This when the military is being asked to do more in the world. Around 700 extra troops are being sent to Afghanistan. Sarkozy wants to set up an EU defence capability of 60,000 troops. And let’s not forget existing French operations in hot spots such as Chad, Kosovo, and southern Lebanon.
Sarkozy says that better equipment, not more people, is the key to more efficient armed forces. That argument doesn’t sit easily with his ambitions to increase France’s military projection across the globe.
