Sarkozy’s speech copy-paste job

TELEVISION station Canal+ has highlighted a sense of déjà vu in President Sarkozy’s speech to farmers this week – significant chunks were identical to one he made eight months ago.

The president told farmers in the Jura on Tuesday: “I have not come to give you a speech you have already heard.”

However according to the show Le Petit Journal, those words could have been better chosen.

Several phrases were in fact copied word for word from a speech in Maine-et-Loire in February.

They included his description of a farmer as “a business person who doesn’t count the hours, who carries the responsibility of large investments, who has to face up to a lot of major personal challenges whether financial, technical, or administrative” and “who must constantly adapt to the climate, the markets, technologies, regulations.”

A reference to French national identity being connected to farming was also recycled, including, word-for-word: “The word ‘terre’ [earth, or soil] is meaningful to the French and I was elected to defend French national identity.”

This appeal to family feeling was also identical: “All the families of France have grandparents, parents, who at one point or another, have worked the land. Agriculture has shaped our countryside. Agriculture has given our country a part of its soul.”

In each speech the president also said he had “total confidence” in his agriculture minister – only the minister concerned has changed in the meantime, from Michel Barnier to Bruno Le Maire.

Despite the “copy and paste” speechwriting, there were some new elements, including the announcement of an aid package in response to mounting farmers’ protests this year.