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TOULOUSE: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn fierce criticism after seeming to associate the word “monkey” with a racist term for a black person.
On a TV show Thursday night, Sarkozy was criticizing the elites “who are like monkeys who don’t listen to anyone” when he suddenly stopped.
“I don’t know anymore, can we say ‘monkey’?” he asked, adding: “Because … we are no longer allowed to say … What do we say? ‘Ten little soldiers’ now? Is that so? Yes … Society is really progressing. “
“Maybe we are allowed to say ‘cute’ without insulting anyone.” Sarkozy was referring to Agatha Christie’s famous novel And Then There Was None, which originally had a different title containing the racially charged word, but which was changed decades ago in Britain.
The French translation of the best-selling book continued to sport the original title until August, when it was renamed “Ils etaient dix” or “They Had Ten” at the request of Christie’s great-grandson.
Within the novel, the racial slur is now replaced by the word “soldier”, as in “ten little soldiers”. Sarkozy’s comments caused a stir in France for his apparent association of the word “monkey” with the insult.
Audrey Pulvar, deputy mayor of Paris, tweeted that it was “pure and deep racism, uninhibited.” Olivier Serva, a parliamentarian from the French overseas Guadeloupe region who belongs to President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party, also criticized Sarkozy.
“The comments are dirty and shameless,” he said in a statement, describing Sarkozy’s tone as arrogant and condescending.
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