Payback Time for Poles and Others Against France

Jim Hoagland writes in his syndicated column today about why France lost the bid to host the Olympics to London. “The well prepared systematic French bid to persuade delegates to award the games to Paris after Beijing hosts them in 2008 was thwarted by a politically motivated last minute swing of central European countries, according to diplomats involved in monitoring the nation-by-nation secret ballot.

It was the French referendum campaign, rejecting the EU constitution, where opponents warned that the document would deluge the country with ‘Polish plumbers’ and other job stealing from the 10 new members admitted to the EU in 2004. “When it came down to a choice between London and Paris, why would the Poles and the others do France a favor after that?”