You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Europe
Blair rips "dictator" Chirac at EU summit
2004-06-18
By Joe Murphy, Evening Standard
EFL. Hat tip to the Brothers Judd.
Another reason to love Tony Blair . . . .
Tony Blair fired a blistering attack at chief weasel Jacques Chirac today, accusing the French president of trying to dictate to the rest of Europe. In unusually brutal language, he charged President Chirac with treating countries including Britain as "second-class" states and acting as though only France and Germany mattered. Mr Blair was almost equally tough with junior assistant weasel German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, named and shamed for using "unfortunate" tactics at the Brussels summit.
It's not good to speak ill of the politically dead...
His official spokesman - referring to French and German efforts to impose their choice as the new president of the European Commission - said no country should order the others around. No one at today’s summit was left in any doubt about the target of Mr Blair’s assault, scripted after a night pondering a tirade by President Chirac at a dinner for the 25 leaders last night. The pair later squared up in a "heated" confrontation, diplomatic sources revealed. Mr Chirac was accused of bullying and insulting leaders of small countries who refused to support him against Mr Blair.
Blair was heard to recite part of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1: "Base muleteers of France! Like peasant foot-boys do they keep the walls, And dare not take up arms like gentlemen." Then it got ugly . . .
Mr Blair’s counter-attack today appeared to be an open challenge to Franco-German dominance of the EU, and a bid to rally the newly joined former eastern bloc states. . . . The row escalated after Mr Chirac accused Mr Blair of provoking crises on two fronts, by torpedoing Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt - the French and German favourite for head of the commission - and by refusing to give ground on the planned constitution. He marched into dinner determined to see Mr Verhofstadt, who favours tax harmonisation and led opposition to the Iraq war, crowned president. Mr Blair - backed by Italy, Portugal and a range of newly-joined states - rejected the arch-federalist poodle Belgian.
Posted by:Mike

#10  Tony, give him a knee to groin shot for me. Jolly good show, old man.
Posted by: Capt America   2004-06-18 4:59:23 PM  

#9  And yet they managed to hack together an EU constitution.
Posted by: Rafael   2004-06-18 4:39:52 PM  

#8  My Google assignment is clear, lol! I'd better get busy and quit listening to the press/agenda! Thanx!
Posted by: .com   2004-06-18 4:38:12 PM  

#7  .com, the next chancellor will probably be SPD... (until elections of course). I see a party putsch coming up there. The SPD has reached a dangerous point... the Greens doubled their votes in the EU elections and might very well become real rivals, not only junior partners. Parts of the Greens have actually more sanity than the Social Democrats.
The well informesd sources say that Henning Scherf, a well liked popular SPD guy and mayor of Bremen (in a "big coalition" with the CDU) is courted as Schroeder's successor (no minister in the Schroeder cabinet has any popularity to succeed Schroeder).
As for the CDU/CSU opposition, it's still too early to tell who will win the power struggle. Angela Merkel wants more radical market reforms, Stoiber will probably try to coat them in candy.

Chances that Schroeder will lose his job this year are at 80% (my estimate). He's a complete failure and history won't treat him very kindly.
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-06-18 4:32:25 PM  

#6  Domestic politics has little to do with the big picture. Tony Blair gets it

I'm not so sure domestic politics didn't influence Blair's actions, BigEd. The repudiation of pro-EU integration candidates this past week seems to be to be a wakeup call to him, saying UK voters are not happy at the thought of the UK being subordinated to a strong federal EU.

Do our UK members agree? or am I off base here?
Posted by: rkb   2004-06-18 4:15:34 PM  

#5  Tony, thank you. Finally someone with a devastating combination of intelligence, wit, and courage has taken Chirac to task. Keep it up!
Posted by: jules 187   2004-06-18 3:40:36 PM  

#4  TGA - I truly look forward to a Germany Under New Management, too. That will be the end of Chirac's ability to offer the pretense that he doesn't speak only for himself.

Can you say who you think will be the next Chancellor? Maybe Edmund Stoiber? Pravda seem to like him, lol!
Posted by: .com   2004-06-18 3:27:06 PM  

#3  TGA : How long before we get Chancellor Merkel, and a little more sanity returns?
Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-18 3:23:59 PM  

#2  I'm getting so sick about that "entente infernale" between Chirac and Schroeder.
At least Schroeder won't survive this year as chancellor. The knifes get sharpened already after his dismal performance at the EU elections.
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-06-18 3:20:29 PM  

#1  Goes to show you. Domestic politics has little to do with the big picture.
Tony Blair gets it.

We can disagree on many things, but the true measure is the understanding of the big picture.

That is why the Dems here showed their true colors, and ignored Joe Lieberman.
Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-18 2:53:13 PM  

00:00