The visit of Nicola Sarkozy to Georgia and the statements made on Freedom Square become the main theme of French media. Articles about this topic were printed in different influential magazines and newspapers. Meeting of Mikheil Saakashvili and Nicola Sarkozy were shown by French channels.

Le Monde “France considers Russia as its friend, as a strategic partner,” underlined Mr. Sarkozy, “but to re-establish trust, threats, intimidations and the attempts at destabilisation that are absolutely unacceptable must cease.”Tensions remain high between Georgia and Russia, as proved the bombings that the Georgian authorities under Mr. Saakashvili attributed to Russian military intelligence, and skirmishes along the demarcation line between Georgian and Russian troops.

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Libération The French president also went a step further in the recognition of Georgia’s European aspirations, declaring that the country should be “free to express its aspiration to move towards the European Union, and to one day join it.” Before an enthusiastic crowd, Nicolas Sarkozy firmly called upon Russia to cease “the intimidations, the threats and the attempts at destabilisation that are unacceptable.” “Everyone must accept that the Soviet Union does not exist anymore,” he insisted. 

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Le Point  Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday denounced in Tbilisi Moscow’s violations of the ceasefire agreements that ended the war in 2008. He received a triumphant welcome from the tens of thousands of Georgians present in their capital. That was an allusion to the forces that Moscow, rather than reduce, has indeed reinforced in the two secessionist Georgian provinces, whose independence Russia unilaterally recognised even though the 2008 agreements call for their statuses to be define within the framework of negotiations in Geneva, which today are at a standstill. 

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La Croix  Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of Europe at length. Georgia “must be free to express its aspiration to move towards the European Union, and to one day join it,” said the president, speaking in French with Georgian subtitles on a big screen.  “This continued rapprochement with the European Union depends, primarily, on your reforms and on the deepening of your democracy,” he underlined, alluding notably to the absence of a credible opposition one year from parliamentary elections, and with a presidential election in 2013. In fact, the country is in a situation of quasi-single party. 

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L’Express Three years later, Moscow militarily occupies Abkhazia and South Ossetia, autonomous regions of Georgia that live under the knout of proxy regimes dependent on the Kremlin. These two principalities have indeed proclaimed their sovereignty (...) What’s more, or worse, the Russian godfather bars access to these satellite territories to international missions – be they EU, UN or OSCE. And the Geneva talks, “imposed” to the warring parties, are bogged deeper than a T-72 tank in muddy terrain.  

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 France 3  Interviewed Mikhail Saakashvili at 22.30 Paris time approximately. The interview was rather brief unfortunately. Images and quotes from the speech were shown beforehand.