“Embarrassed French diplomats tried to explain away the walk-out, saying that their ministers all needed a toilet break at the same time.”

- The Times of London on why French President Jacques Chirac and three ministers left an EU summit meeting. The real reason appears to be that Chirac was offended when a French businessperson began a presentation … in English. According to the article:

When M Seillière, who is an English-educated steel baron, started a presentation to all 25 EU leaders, President Chirac interrupted to ask why he was speaking in English. M Seillière explained: “I’m going to speak in English because that is the language of business.”

Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers, leaving the 24 other European leaders stunned. They returned only after M Seilière had finished speaking.

Sounds like at least one of those protesting French students is learning valuable skills — the one who, forty years from now, will be President of France.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 4:55 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under France, We Taunt You. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.