The appearance of the ex-French president François Hollande on stage in the middle of a piece on Europe has created the surprise Saturday evening, July 6, at the prestigious theatre festival of Avignon, has found the AFP.

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Comedian with a time of 15 minutes, the former president was invited on stage to answer the questions of the actors and actresses of “We, the European banquet of the peoples”, a text that river for three hours on the “Old continent”, written by the Goncourt prize, Laurent Gaudé and directed by Roland Auzet.

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His passage on the stage had the look of a political rally during which he defended the european project threatened according to him, “nationalism (which) was installed in Europe.” “They (the nationalists) don’t want the country to leave Europe, they want Europe to stop. It is a political struggle”, he assured.

François Hollande took the opportunity to engage in a kind of mea culpa: “my regret is not having been able to share the european commitment to the greater number of the French.”

The issue of refugees is another “remorse” of the ex-president: “what was expected of Europe is that it can be united to accommodate and honor of its duty, even with rules that could be in common, and distribute to the refugees. We have been unable to resolve (this problem) in a timely manner”. “Europe is taking good decisions but always with the delay” and “during this time the camps were established, the population has been able to fear for their identity,” he estimated.

“France, Germany, we have this responsibility to open the path,” he said.

With 11 actors, the play’s director Roland Auzet recounts an epic story of the european project, the first railway in the enlargement of the european Union.