European Greens To Their Leader: "Oh, Hecky Naw. You Ain't Inviting Rama Yade To Our Summer Meeting"

Rama Yade, the "evil" capitalist

Daniel Cohn-Bendit has surrendered to internal criticism, and has disinvited Rama Yade, the moderate-conservative French Secretary of State for Sport who is one of France's most popular political figures, to a soccer workshop during the European Greens-European Free Alliance meeting in Nantes, France (article in French). Actually, he just cancelled the entire workshop.

The European Greens leader says that he is responding to the "madness of political correctness among hardcore Greens" who don't want "a minister of [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy" involved in a single workshop during their meeting next month. "With this sectarian madness, I don't feel at home", said Mr. Cohn-Bendit. "We need to talk to everybody," he said, mocking the fact that the Greens "have invited Jean-Luc Mélenchon justified Chinese intervention in Tibet! ".

The co-chairman of the Greens in the European Parliament and MEP Yannick Jadot wanted to organize a "Where is soccer?" workshop and had invited Ms. Yade along with French soccer star Vikash Dhorasoo or the president of Olympique Lyonnais, Jean-Michel Aulas.

Mr. Cohn-Bendit, Greens leader

This soccer workshop "was to be fun and show that Europe is not concerned with ecology as one of the misfortunes of the world," Mr. Cohn-Bendit argued to AFP, said the anti-Yade position of his partymates was "absolutely ridiculous".

Last February, Mr. Cohn-Bendit had declared that he was a fan of Ms. Yade, a former human rights minister. "I think Rama Yade disturbed the right [with some of her outspokenness on certain policy positions] and I think it's perfect." He added, "You know she started [her political career] in the office of Yves Cochet (Green MP since 1997, ed). She has a history, a future and we do not know where it will end. Maybe she will land with the European Greens", he said.

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