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Carla tells Sarkozy “I’ll be there”

First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she is ready to hit the campaign trail for her husband President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Published: 13 January 2012 13:34 CET

“If my husband is candidate for the presidential elections, I will take part as much as possible,” Bruni-Sarkozy told Le Parisien.

Sarkozy has not yet officially confirmed that he will run in this year’s presidential elections, but in reality there is little doubt in France that he will. Bruni-Sarkozy coyly denied knowing whether her husband was running for the upcoming elections, adding she didn’t “know what the future holds”.

During a visit to a hospital in Garches, west of Paris, she listened to a concert organised by her foundation for handicapped children. She said she was ready to pitch in during the presidential campaign.

“I will stand by my husband whatever he decides. I don’t know what I’ll do, but if he needs me, I’ll be there,” she says.

At the beginning of her life as first lady in 2008, Bruni-Sarkozy came under fire for being aloof and not interested in politics.

France's Uyghurs say Xi visit a 'slap' from Macron

Xi is due to make a state visit to France on Monday and Tuesday.

Dilnur Reyhan, the founder of the European Uyghur Institute and a French national, said she and others were “angry” the Chinese leader was visiting.

“For the Uyghur people — and in particular for French Uyghurs — it’s a slap from our president, Emmanuel Macron,” she said, describing the Chinese leader as “the executioner of the Uyghur people”.

Beijing stands accused of incarcerating more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention facilities across the Xinjiang region.

Campaigners and Uyghurs overseas have said an array of abuses take place inside the facilities, including torture, forced labour, forced sterilisation and political indoctrination.

A UN report last year detailed “credible” evidence of torture, forced medical treatment and sexual or gender-based violence — as well as forced labour — in the region.

But it stopped short of labelling Beijing’s actions a “genocide”, as the United States and some other Western lawmakers have done.

Beijing consistently denies abuses and claims the allegations are part of a deliberate smear campaign to contain its development.

It says it is running vocational training centres in Xinjiang which have helped to combat extremism and enhance development.

Standing beside Reyhan at a press conference in Paris, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, who presented herself as having spent three years in a detention camp, said she was “disappointed”.

“I am asking the president to bring up the issue of the camps with China and to firmly demand they be shut down,” she said.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Macron during the visit to “lay out consequences for the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity and deepening repression”.

“Respect for human rights has severely deteriorated under Xi Jinping’s rule,” it said.

“His government has committed crimes against humanity… against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, adopted draconian legislation that has erased Hong Kong’s freedoms, and intensified repression of government critics across the country.”

“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch

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