But why did you roll out the red carpet for the Libyan dictator? Received at the Elysée Palace in 2007 by Nicolas Sarkozy, the sulphurous Colonel Gaddafi very quickly proves to be a cumbersome guest. It is not in Paris for two days that already, the controversies are linked. This excerpt from the magazine “Affaires sensible” looks back on an embarrassing moment for the French government.
In 2007, the controversial visit of the Libyan dictator was supposed to last 72 hours, but it will last up to five days. Five interminable days for the new president Nicolas Sarkozy: his guest gives free rein to his whims, demanding, for example, to pitch a Bedouin tent in the gardens of the Marigny hotel.
It is in this unusual setting that David Pujadas interviews him for France 2. In this extract from an issue of “Sensitive Affairs” devoted to “the crazy visit of a dictator”, the journalist returns to this interview “unreal”. “When I saw Colonel Gaddafi arrive, he says, visibly, he had just woken up. It was Keith Richards, me, that’s the image that came to mind.” Is it the lack of sleep or the effect of some substance? In any case, the colonel has “puffy eyes” And “the look of someone who spends rather restless nights”.
The interview begins. Do we have the right, today in Libya, asks David Pujadas, to criticize Muammar Gaddafi? “Why do you want to criticize me? replies this one. Me, I don’t direct anything, I have no power, no political or administrative skills. It is the people who manage their affairs. It is he who determines the laws, and who makes the decisions.” Surprising words in the mouth of a dictator who, in thirty-eight years, has not organized elections… But it is another declaration which will cause controversy.
Sarkozy or Gaddafi, who is telling the truth?
“President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated yesterday that he had asked you to progress on the path of human rights, continues David Pujadas. Can we expect one day in Libya to have free political parties and a free press?” “We did not discuss these subjects, me and President Sarkozy”, replies the Libyan “guide”, maintaining that the question has no “absolutely not” was raised by this “friend and close collaborator”.
The President of the Republic had said the opposite in front of the cameras. Faced with millions of French people, he is contradicted by Gaddafi. On the benches of the National Assembly, the opposition denounces a scandal and demands the truth.
So who is telling the truth? Nicolas Sarkozy, of course, if we are to believe Claude Guéant. “I witnessed President Sarkozy address the issue of human rights, inviting Gaddafi to go significantly further than what he had done so far,” maintains the former secretary general of the Elysée at the microphone of “Sensitive Affairs”.
Extract from “Gaddafi in Paris, the crazy visit of a dictator”, a document to see on May 18, 2023 in “Sensitive Affairs”, a co-production France Télévisions, France TV press, France Inter, INA and Capa Presse adapted from a France Inter broadcast.
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