Crossword Genius

Sweden discussing getting French out of Europe at first? It’s a distraction (8-5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stalking-horse

'a distraction' is the definition.
(distraction from someone's real views)

'sweden discussing getting french out of europe at first?' is the wordplay.
'sweden' becomes 's'.
'discussing getting' becomes 'talking' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'french out of' becomes 'hors' ('outside' or 'outside of' in French).
'at first?' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'at first' mean this).
The initial letter of 'europe' is 'e'.
's'+'talking'+'hors'+'e'='STALKING-HORSE'

'it's' is the link.

(Other definitions for stalking-horse that I've seen before include "Mobile hide for hunter - candidate testing the waters" , "Political pawn" , "Candidate put up to conceal the real threat" , "Pretext; candidate as ploy" , "Trial candidate" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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