Charles Bremner - Times Online - WBLG

Wrangling over the Atlantic

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for all those points of view on the Bush-in-Vienna post: over 100 comments and they are just the publishable ones. It is interesting to see the emotion that is stirred by European views of the Bush administration -- especially on the US side. It's great to see that the London Times is read so much on the other side of the Atlantic. But let's not turn this into a shouting match.   

Perhaps we should move on, but I'd like first to go back over a couple of points. In the posting, I was questioning the strategy of the Bush administration and not the United States as a whole, let alone casting judgement on the American people. It may be interesting to debate the relative merits of religions and of faith versus atheism but this does not have a great deal to do with the subject:  President Bush's conduct of foreign policy.

Vienna goes quiet for Bush

It is a hot and steamy morning in Vienna and commuters on the Maria Hilferstrasse were venting their wrath at George W Bush as I walked by. A gaggle of teenaged school pupils passed with anti-US banners under close police supervision and some jammed drivers joined in the chant: "Go away Bush. We don't want your war".

The US President is in the Austrian capital.  He has landed with full entourage for just a few hours for his annual session with European Union dignitaries. The diplomatic mood is improving and the talks will help advance EU-US actions over Iran, the Middle East and North Korea and may help over the blocked world trade round. But you have to wonder whether the brief presidential drop-by -- before a one-day visit to Hungary -- is worth the vast logistical effort.

Landing in Breton trouble

If you want to get somewhere quickly, don't take a small plane. The old rule was confirmed again this morning when I found myself facing a platoon of heavily armed and rather nervous soldiers of the French special forces on the rainswept tarmac of an airport in Brittany. Oops, was my first thought. I must just have done something bad, like violating prohibited air space, and they have come to get me.   

It was mid-morning and a time when I should have been at my desk in Paris.  The little episode was of no importance and has nothing to do with our usual matters of moment, so read on only for the sake of anecdote. It's a chance to mention a beautiful corner of the world and another example of French hospitality towards aviators.

Chirac's Monument for Paris

(Updated)

PRESIDENT CHIRAC fulfilled one of his oldest ambitons on Tuesday when he unveiled his new 230-million euro baby: a museum on the Quai Branly, a Left Bank stretch by the Eiffel tower.

The building, designed by Jean Nouvel,  is spectacular. Its contents -- 300,000 artefacts from non-European civilisations -- are controversial and, true to form, Chirac sees the whole thing as a bit of resistance against the United States.   

A curving edifice set in 7 acres of jungle-like garden, the Quai Branly museum will be the sole grand projet of the President’s 12-year rule when he steps down in May. Unlike François Mitterrand, who spent 4.8 billion euros of taxpayers’ money stamping his memory on the capital, Chirac has had only one architectural obsession — building a worthy display for the indigenous arts that have been his lifelong hobby.

The struggle for Libération

[Today's Libé, with the staff's defiant declaration on page one -- alongside a typical front on José Bové, the anti-globalising sheep farmer]

As a student and young journalist in France a while ago (I'm giving away my age), there was only one newspaper: Libération. Founded in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July, Libé was the voice of our generation. It was hip, irreverent and clever, in contrast to the stodgy other papers. Sartre died long ago, but Serge July hung on at the paper -- until this week.

Backstage with Jacques and Tony

 

The sun-filled garden of the Elysée palace was a perfect venue today for a farewell by that popular but rather weary double-act, the Jacques and Tony show. Like Britain's Eric and Ernie or the two Ronnies, Jacques and Tony fed each other the old gags and catch-phrases, but the ninth and almost certainly last summit between the French and British leaders offered little of the sizzle of their heyday.  Tête-à-tête in the palace garden and then before the press, President Chirac and the British Prime Minister were too busy being nice to create the sparks that the fans remember from their earlier hits.

Top among these was the Brussels Bust Up of 2002, a quarrel about European farm subsidies, when Jacques, in paternal form, brought the house down by calling young Tony "badly brought up".

France Readies For Change ?

Something interesting is happening on the long stagnant French political scene. A sense of excitement has even started to infect the most gloomy observers. I was talking to Jacques Marseille, a professor of economic history at the Sorbonne whose books have for years been offering a bleak diagnosis of the French malaise. Last night, over a beer in his local cafe by the Boulevard Saint Michel, he was almost lyrical with optimism. "I get the feeling that the machine for changing the country has started up," he said.   

The cause of Marseille's good mood was the race for the presidential elections that are still 11 months away. After a year of turmoil, including rejection of the European Constitution, immigrant riots and a student revolt, the stage has been taken over in the past two months by two duelling stars -- Ségolène Royal for the left and Nicolas Sarkozy for the right. France may be offered the choice of two candidates who are both promising a break with the sclerotic past, noted Marseille, whose latest book is called The Correct Use of the Civil War in France. (Du bon usage de la guerre civile en France)

A phantom holiday

An odd Monday morning in France. I have just come in from Nimes where thousands of bull-fighting fans and tourists have converged for the traditional Pentecost feria. The sun is shining, the music is playing and the sangria is flowing as one of Europe's biggest fiestas reaches its climax.

But this is supposed to be a working day. The Government cancelled the Pentecôte (Whitsun in Britain) public holiday two years ago and replaced it with a Day of Solidarity. Without consulting anyone, President Chirac's team came up with the idea after 11,000 elderly people died in the heatwave of 2003. The extra day's work is supposed to generate two billion euros in tax to care for the elderly and infirm. Last year's first Day of Solidarity turned into chaos when half the country decided to take the day off anyway.

This year, the situation is even more bizarre. The state has surrendered to its own employees and given public services and schools the day off. Trucks are barred from the highways and trains and Paris Metro are running holiday schedules, yet a majority of businesses and their employees are at work.

Selling celebrity in France

For a sovereign who has just inherited the 800-year-old family throne, confessing to being the father of an illegitimate child was embarrassing enough. Yesterday's admission by Prince Albert of Monaco to a second offspring begins to look like a pattern.
   
The prince formerly rumoured to be the gay Grimaldi has provided a good moment to mention France's deepening state of celebrity-mania. First some facts.

According to Thierry Lacoste, the Prince's lawyer, Albert now recognises that he is the father of Jazmin Grace Rotolo, a 14-year-old Californian. Last summer, after succeeding Prince Rainier, an exposé in Paris Match forced him to acknowledge that he was the father of Alexandre Lacoste, the two-year-old son of a former airline stewardess from Togo.