Monday, October 05, 2009
More European woes for Tories
As if to add fuel to the fire the Daily Telegraph reports this morning that David Cameron's decision to pull Conservative MEPs out of the centre-right European People's Party grouping, in June in order to fulfil a pledge made during his leadership campaign in 2005, caused consternation amongst Conservative leaders across Europe.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to have told Mr Cameron: "C'est fou, il se fait mal à la tête," meaning "It's stupid, you're giving yourself a headache", whilst the decision also went down badly with other mainstream European leaders including Angela Merkel of Germany, who threatened to withhold co-operation from the Conservatives. Ms Merkel's Christian Democrat Union party recalled its London representative Thomas Stehling to Germany in protest at the move.
The paper says that European leaders were not alone in expressing their amazement at the move. President Barack Obama is understood to have raised the issue when he met Mr Cameron last summer at the House of Commons during his visit to Britain. He is said to have expressed surprise that Mr Cameron intended to divorce himself from the EPP group, which contains France, Germany and Italy and form a new alliance with the Poles and other smaller Eastern European states.
Margaret Thatcher, when she was Prime Minister was said to have spent most of her time in Europe at odds with other leaders, many of whom were socialists or on the left. David Cameron has managed to achieve that distinction before he even assumes office and the people he has alienated are his natural allies on the right wing of politics. Nice job!
It does not bode well for a Cameron Priemiership at all.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to have told Mr Cameron: "C'est fou, il se fait mal à la tête," meaning "It's stupid, you're giving yourself a headache", whilst the decision also went down badly with other mainstream European leaders including Angela Merkel of Germany, who threatened to withhold co-operation from the Conservatives. Ms Merkel's Christian Democrat Union party recalled its London representative Thomas Stehling to Germany in protest at the move.
The paper says that European leaders were not alone in expressing their amazement at the move. President Barack Obama is understood to have raised the issue when he met Mr Cameron last summer at the House of Commons during his visit to Britain. He is said to have expressed surprise that Mr Cameron intended to divorce himself from the EPP group, which contains France, Germany and Italy and form a new alliance with the Poles and other smaller Eastern European states.
Margaret Thatcher, when she was Prime Minister was said to have spent most of her time in Europe at odds with other leaders, many of whom were socialists or on the left. David Cameron has managed to achieve that distinction before he even assumes office and the people he has alienated are his natural allies on the right wing of politics. Nice job!
It does not bode well for a Cameron Priemiership at all.
