France applauds 'statesman' Chirac

France applauds 'statesman' Chirac

Chirac: The "voice of Old Europe"

The French media is revelling in President Jacques Chirac's resounding No to war in Iraq, and his unexpected emergence as an elder statesman of European politics.

Before his re-election in May last year, Mr Chirac was struggling to avoid prosecution on charges of corruption.

He had a reputation as slick operator and a charmer, but something of an opportunist.

But now, says the French daily France Soir, he has made a remarkable comeback.

The paper sums it all up in a front page picture of the president under the headline: "March 2002-March 2003: the Year of Chirac."

Support from Hollywood

Two pages inside chart his return from political oblivion to a statesman who has acquired "another dimension" by taking a stand against Washington.

Even Hollywood is roped in, with appreciation for the French position from Jennifer Aniston, Nicholas Cage, Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Daniel Day Lewis and also from Martin Sheen who, France Soir emphasises, plays an American president in the television series West Wing.

The less excitable Le Monde notes that the French president's stand is applauded by the political Left and Right equally, and by the French public.

France is currently the voice of "old Europe", it says, affirming "an understanding of the world order where the use of force would be only the last recourse, where multilateralism would be the rule, and where democratic dialogue in the bosom of the UN would always prevail".

Domestic troubles loom

The paper adds: "The objective is not only noble, it is above all pertinent."

It does, however, accuse Mr Chirac of belittling the gravity of France's potential use of its United Nations veto against an ally "which rightly or wrongly believes that its security is threatened".

Le Figaro also cheers on Mr Chirac in his contest with US President George W Bush at the UN Security Council.

"France, which has only the power of the word, has proven that military might alone is sometimes insufficient," it says.

The left-wing daily Liberation is almost alone in taking a dig at Mr Chirac for ignoring domestic political issues while "basking in the glow" of international approval.

Mr Chirac, says Liberation, is playing the role of a "soldier for peace" but he will be summoned back soon because public sector workers are on the march again.

Their exasperation, it adds, is "growing at a faster rate than any disarmament being carried out on the Tigris".