Qaddafi has France build him a cruise ship – Sarkozy negotiated major project

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticized France's Libya policy as being "opportunistic and implausible." "Today President Nicolas Sarkozy is apparently a fervent advocate of the Libyan opposition movement – he was the first European head of state to cut diplomatic relations with Libya, and is calling for a special EU summit meeting. Yesterday, however, he practiced flagrant cronyism in fulfilling the most absurd wishes of the "Leader of the Revolution" – he agreed to supply Qaddafi with a nuclear reactor and munitions, and made the arrangements for Qaddafi's most ridiculous project of all: the construction of the largest cruise ship in the world, for Qaddafi's son Hannibal, at a French shipyard," reported the head of the Africa section at the STP, Ulrich Delius, on Tuesday in Göttingen.

The 139,400 ton, 333 meter long cruise ship was ordered in June 2010 by Libyan's state-owned shipping company, General National Maritime Transport Company (GNMTC), at the prestigious STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire. Construction of the cruise ship, designed for 4000 passengers and a crew of 732, began on 15 December 2010. "It looks like Qaddafi will not have time to test Hannibal's new toy by taking it on a cruise into exile," noted Delius. The ship will not be completed before December 2012.

To the then French Secretary of State for Transport, Dominique Bussereau, the contract for construction of the ship was "proof of the excellent relations between Tripoli and Paris." The administration official personally signed the agreement that the Élysée Palace had arranged with Hannibal Qaddafi. Sarkozy sent his congratulations in writing to the shipyard, which had been struggling to bring in more manufacturing orders. Just a few days later, in July 2010, Sarkozy's most influential foreign policy advisor Claude Guéant traveled to Tripoli to deliver a personal "thank you" from the French president for the large order.

Libya's state shipping company, GNMTC, has experience only in shipping crude oil and liquefied gas with their 24 tankers. How this shipping company, run by Qaddafi's son Hannibal, plans to operate the largest cruise ship in the world remains a mystery to experts in this field. Hannibal offered only the explanation that GNMTC wanted to expand, and would use the 500 million euro ship as a hotelship off the Libyan coast during major sporting events and other festivities. Apart from that, the ship would be used in Europe.