A disgrace for the EU

The liberal daily Upsala Nya Tidning condemns President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to take action against the Roma as a disgrace for the entire European Union: "France was once a country shaped by the ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity. The idea of the EU was governed by the same spirit. When President Nicolas Sarkozy uses the power of the nation to throw certain inhabitants out of the country ... he is damaging the ideals and the development of the EU. ... His policy towards the Roma is the expression of a view of collective blame. Sarkozy is digging in the same soil as [the right-wing extremist Hungarian party] Jobbik. Once again people are being driven out, rejected by a society that accuses them of not wanting to integrate. Instead of fighting discrimination and social destitution, it is people who are being targeted. Europe has never wanted to accept that the Roma have a different way of life. ... So lightly do we treat freedom today, so little is equality there, and so alien are our sisters and brothers to us."

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