Temper tantrum

1 April 2009 By Pierre Briancon

The French president says he ll walk out of the G20 meeting if it doesn t produce results. Most likely, Sarko just wants to boast to the French that he has got something done. That s childish. And if he s serious about this empty gesture, that s irresponsible.

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Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, said on Wednesday that he would "fight until the last minute" for an ambitious agenda of financial regulation at the G20 summit in London.

Sarkozy said the issue of tax havens remained the main issue of contention between summit participants. As things stand, the proposals satisfy neither Germany nor France", he added, saying that German chancellor Angela Merkel was "on the same wavelength".

Sarkozy singled out China for its opposition to naming tax havens in the G20 final communiqué.

The French president also seemed to backtrack somehow on threats he'd made to walk out of the world leaders' meeting if he wasn't satisfied with the results. The empty chair policy would mark a failure, that of the summit, and I do not want to believe we might end up there", he said.

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