Paris, open to ridicule

Stung by Nicolas Sarkozy's remarks suggesting that European Commissioner Viviane Reding allow the Roma to settle in her home country of Luxembourg, the press of the Grand Duchy has now responded. As La Voix du Luxembourg sees it, the French president and his entourage "have not left the boulevard of ridicule", noting that "France could even go further as the front-runner in pathetic declarations".

The controversy, notes the paper, "serves the president's majority (party) in other ways, as it tends to relegate a number of hot-button issues (rising costs, the law concerning the burqa, pension reform), to more modest columns on the front page, relatively free from the scrutiny of analysts.

“All things considered, it is not likely that current policy will be very costly to the conservative majority in power in France as the 2012 presidential elections approach. We can only hope that the Sarkozy administration's beautiful world will soon take interest in real subjects, like the resolution of the economic crisis and the importance of the European Union on the international scene.”