“My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure,” [French President Nicolas Sarkozy] said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.
“Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want… a society where communities coexist side by side.
“If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France,” the right-wing president said.
“The French national community cannot accept a change in its lifestyle, equality between men and women… freedom for little girls to go to school,” he said.
He has a point. An Islamist school might ban girls and also try to impose that view on the culture at large. This clearly comes in conflict with the more egalitarian views of the society at large.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia’s ex-prime minister John Howard and Spanish ex-premier Jose Maria Aznar have also recently said multicultural policies have not successfully integrated immigrants.
Cameron specifically said that allowing Islamists ito live in isolated clusters can foster religious extremism which could lead to terrorism.
Merkel in October said efforts towards multiculturalism in Germany had “failed, totally.”
Yes, these leaders tilt to the right. But this isn’t merely zenophobia or racism. Something has broken in the EU when it comes to multiculturalism.
The French president seems to be leaning more and more toward the radical ideas of Le Pen which he will definitely use as part of his presidential campaign in order to gain more support and improve his damaged reputation.