Et c'est un vieux pays

Et c'est un vieux pays ( German "And it's an old country ...!") Is a title for the speech by Dominique de Villepin before the United Nations Security Council , the speech of the then Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of France , the he held on February 14, 2003 and in which he spoke out vehemently against the US attack on Iraq .

Dominique de Villepin (as Foreign Minister)

speech

In his speech to the Security Council of the United Nations in New York Dominique de Villepin gave the strong resistance of France against a possible military intervention against Iraq expressed. It also provides a response to the statements of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from the previous month is, and this meant that France and Germany now for the " old Europe " ( Old Europe included), as opposed to a Europe of emerging East which "The new Europe".

The key passage towards the end of the speech reads:

"In the temple des Nations Unies, nous sommes les gardiens d'un idéal, nous sommes les gardiens d'une conscience. La lourde responsabilité et l'immense honneur qui sont les nôtres doivent nous conduire à thunder la priorité au désarmement dans la paix.

Et c'est un vieux pays, la France, d'un vieux continent comme le mien, l'Europe, qui vous le dit aujourd'hui, qui a connu les guerres, l'occupation, la barbarie. Un pays qui n'oublie pas et qui sait tout ce qu'il doit aux combattants de la liberté venus d'Amérique et d'ailleurs. Et qui pourtant n'a cessé de se tenir debout face à l'Histoire et devant les hommes. Fidèle à ses valeurs, il veut agir résolument avec tous les membres de la communauté internationale. Il croit en notre capacité à construire ensemble un monde meilleur. »

“In this temple of the United Nations we are the guardians of an ideal, we are the guardians of a conscience. Given the great responsibility and honor we have, we must make peaceful disarmament the top priority.

And it is an old country, France, an old continent like mine, Europe, which is telling you this today, a country that has seen wars, occupation and barbarism. A country that does not forget and knows everything it owes to the fighters for freedom from America and elsewhere. And that has always stood firm in front of history and people. True to its values, it wishes to act decisively with all members of the international community. It believes in building a better world together. "

Villepin received applause and worldwide attention for his speech - unusual in this place.

With Operation Iraqi Freedom in a “ coalition of the willing ” led by the United States , however , the Iraq war began only a few weeks later on the night of March 19-20 with targeted bombings on Baghdad .

The speech was seen as a high point in French foreign policy , and it appears as such in French popular culture, including the French comic Quai d'Orsay (a former speechwriter for Villepin) and its film adaptation , directed by Bertrand Tavernier (with Thierry Lhermitte in the role of foreign minister).

The speech can be regarded as one of the key speeches of the Chirac era in the Élysée , after the recognition of the participation of the French state in the Rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver (1942) on July 16, 1995.

References and footnotes

↑ Dominique de Villepin has held the post of Foreign Minister since May 7, 2002 and was appointed Minister of the Interior on March 31, 2004 after a cabinet reshuffle .
↑ Discours prononcé à l'ONU lors de la crise irakienne - February 14, 2003 (Wikisource)
↑ Caroline Wyatt: Profile: Dominique de Villepin ( English ) In: news.bbc.co.uk . BBC. January 28, 2010. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved on August 9, 2018.
↑ Political intimus Antonin Baudry wrote “Quai D'Orsay” as comic author Abel Lanzac - interview in the Arte broadcast “ 28 minutes ” (28 ')
↑ cf. Tatiana de Rosnay: Sarah's key . With materials for reading circles. Berliner Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8333-0548-1 . Reading circle attachment ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 360 kB) d. Ed., Section “Historical Background” (pp. 402–405). @1@ 2