As he announced his retreat from the presidential nomination race on Thursday night, Mitt Romney unleashed a new volley against France: “If America doesn’t change, we might turn into the France of the 21st century. Another great nation, but not a world leader.”
It’s not the first time Mitt Romney has attacked France. In a campaign document procured by the Boston Globe, the businessman seemed to have invented the slogans he would use in future speeches: “It’s there that Hillary and the Democrats want to take us. Hillary = France.” He had also planned to use stickers emblazoned with the words “First, Not France”. And in a speech on moral values, Mitt Romney said: “In France, I’m told people get married for seven year periods, after which either one of the partners is free to leave. How shallow!”
Why France?
The Boston Globe is surprised by Mitt Romney’s dogged anti-France stance. “Why France? Now that most Americans are opposed to war in Iraq,” writes the Boston Globe, “does Romney believe voters still agree with Bush and Cheney’s decision to rename French fries “American Fries”? Peter S. Canellos, the paper’s Washington bureau chief, concludes: “It’s not the French that Romney despises. He seems to think the voters in the Republican primaries have brie for brains.”
Youth in Bordeaux
As for Le Figaro, the right wing newspaper recalls the deposed candidate’s American youth. Aged 19, Willard (“Mitt”) Romney was sent to France for two years as a Mormon missionary. He speaks about how difficult it was to convert Catholics – something the French daily uses to explain his animosity against the French. “This is where he first encountered defeat,” says Le Figaro. “He only managed to convert two people.” Romney’s stay in France coincided with the events of May 1968, a period which left him with “an image of a country that was more archaic than revolutionary,” says the French daily. Le Figaro concludes with an anecdote explaining his progression from missionary to team leader. “On a road to Gironde, his citröen was struck by a hit-and-run driver, killing the wife of the “bishop” who was with him in the car. Deeply shocked, he found himself at the head of the 200 missionaries deployed in France. In this role as a leader, he surpassed the ambitious proselytical goals he had originally set for himself.”
