Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned that the current fight between President Emmanuel Macron and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement will “end badly.”
Mr Sarkozy slammed Macron for not taking firm action against violence from radicals within the Yellow Vest movement saying, “Macron must act to restore authority. The state must answer. I am sure he will do it. But it must be done now and with extreme firmness,” Le Figaro reports.
The comments come only days after Sarkozy appeared alongside the current president on the Glières plateau in Haute-Savoie on March 31st for the anniversary of fighting during the Second World War in 1944 that saw one hundred resistance fighters die at the hands of the Nazi regime.
Sarkozy has also come into conflict with Macron over the latter’s attitude toward Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“My friendship with Viktor Orbán made me end my silence,” Sarkozy said and added, “Europe must not be sectarian.”
The former French leader added that he has become more and more sure that the reign of Macron “will end badly.”
“At some point, it will turn around, and the right will have to be ready,” he said.
Sarkozy is not the only former French president to be speaking out on the future of the country. France’s previous president François Hollande told Le Parisien that he believed the “far-right” would one day come to power in France.
“The threat comes from the far right. I say, one day she will come to power in France. In 2022 or later… since they claim they are the only ones who have not been tried!” he said.
Hollande, who left office with an approval rating in the single digits, also said he feared the European Union could become paralysed by major populist gains in the European Parliament elections in May.
“I fear his paralysis. Populist-inspired governments like Matteo Salvini’s Italy or Viktor Orbán’s Hungary want Europe to move no further. And they have the means to block any development within the European Council,” he said, and added he was in favour of a union built around France and Germany.
The foundations of such a union were laid by Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this year when both signed a treaty to increase cooperation between their two nations.