BRUSSELS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy upended a European Union summit to defend his own nation’s honor, vowing Thursday to keep clearing out illegal-immigrant camps despite accusations that France is being racist and unfairly targets Gypsies.
The summit was supposed to be a forum for molding a unifying European foreign policy, but it turned into a drama of discord — with the outspoken Sarkozy usurping the podium to preach his policies and lash out at his critics.
Sarkozy said comments by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding that linked the expulsions to the mass deportations of World War II were “disgusting.”
“I am head of the French state. I cannot let my nation be insulted,” Sarkozy told reporters.
The wartime comparison stung many in France and other members of a bloc designed to overcome and prevent the kind of hostilities that divided Europe in the past. France deported about 76,000 Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps and interned thousands of Gypsies in camps in France during the war.
Sarkozy insisted France’s expulsions of Gypsies, or Roma, are a matter of security and said France doesn’t have to take lessons from anyone, as long as it respects human rights. He called more than 100 Roma camps dismantled in France in recent weeks havens of crime and undignified living conditions.
Participants at the summit lunch said emotions flared between Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso over the expulsions. Barroso did not want to comment on his exchange with Sarkozy, brushing off “useless rhetoric or unnecessary controversies.”
Sarkozy downplayed the exchange. “If there is someone who keeps his calm, and abstains from excessive comments, it is surely me,” said the French leader, who has a reputation for having a volatile temper.
Britain, so often at loggerheads with France over all issues European, backed Sarkozy.
“Members of the Commission have to choose their language carefully as well,” said Prime Minister David Cameron, a fellow member of the center-right.
Other EU issues
Beyond the Roma issue, EU government leaders:
• Agreed to temporarily waive World Trade Organization tariffs on key Pakistani imports to help boost the flood-devastated country’s economy. They also wanted to craft a long-term strategy to help the country get its economy back on track.
• Agreed to a free-trade pact with South Korea that will slash billions of dollars in industrial and agricultural duties, despite some countries’ worries that the auto industry could be hurt by a flood of cheaper cars.
The Associated Press
