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French centrist Bayrou attacks Sarkozy for Holocaust remarks

PARIS -- French centrist Francois Bayrou on Friday accused his rightist presidential rival Nicolas Sarkozy of sending a chilling message to EU partner Germany with recent remarks on the Holocaust.

Bayrou, who has narrowed the gap with frontrunners Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal in recent opinion polls, said the rightist candidate was trying to lure far-right National Front voters with his comments...

"He has said things for example about Germany, imputing to the German people the responsibility for the final solution, the Shoah, the extermination of Jews, which makes one shiver in terms of future relations within the European Union," Bayrou told France 2 television.

At a rally in the southern city of Nice last month Sarkozy said France should not be ashamed of its history: "It has not carried out a genocide. It did not invent the final solution. It invented human rights and it's the country in the world which has fought the most for freedom."
Read entire article at Reuters