Europe’s Lone Ranger Rides Again

The old cowboy of French politics is sitting tall in the saddle again. Six months after his re-election to the French presidency, Jacques Chirac is out to shoot down those who presumed to write off his country as a serious international player. Over the past two weeks, Chirac forced the Bush Administration toward a weaker U.N. resolution on Iraq; he bushwhacked would-be reformers of the E.U.’s costly Common Agricultural Policy (cap), thus preserving lucrative subsidies for French farmers. In September he sent troops to Africa to prop up a threatened regime in France’s former colony, Ivory Coast. These days, Chirac is riding the range with even more gusto than the Texan in the White House.

The man does not lack confidence. Chirac wants France — and himself — to be seen as an alternative to American power. Like his hero Charles de Gaulle before him, Chirac is not afraid to stand up to the States, whether on Iraq, the Kyoto treaty, trade or defense. When he gets slapped down, he barely seems to notice. He believes France is a “beacon,” as he puts it, that offers the world a consensual, socially-aware model of governance at odds with what he views as the unilateral American approach. And within the E.U., Chirac wants to make sure that France retains its pre-eminence alongside Germany as one of the Union’s two prime movers. If that means he has to turn up his nose at Tony Blair, as he did at the E.U. summit late last month, he’s more than willing.

Chirac, who celebrates his 70th birthday at the end of this month, has often been thwarted in a career that stretches back four decades, so he’s making up for it now. He earned his cowboy spurs in the 1970s, veering wildly between Reagan-Thatcher economics and French “laborism.” He resigned as Prime Minister in 1976 after deciding that President Valry Giscard d’Estaing wasn’t taking enough notice of him. In 1981, after founding his own party, he ran a presidential campaign that split the right and allowed the left to win the presidency. He tried again in 1988 and was routed by Franois Mitterrand, finally making it to the Elysée Palace in 1995, only to lose legislative elections, and control of the government, two years later.

Chirac’s determination to succeed in his last term is entwined with deep-rooted French nationalism. The big victory by his followers in parliamentary elections in June freed him from five frustrating years of ‘cohabitation’ with the left that hobbled French foreign policy. Now he’s intent on forging a role as a national leader who rises above partisan politics to exemplify his nation.

Leading the international opposition to Washington hawks over Iraq has won Chirac plaudits at home and in the Arab world. He can take credit for pushing the Bush Administration to working through the United Nations. Chirac’s insistence has put him at the head of European countries worried about unilateralism in Washington. But there’s more to Chirac’s diplomacy than concern for the U.N.’s authority. On Iraq, Paris is anxious to bolster its political and economic position in the Middle East. French companies have considerable investments in Iraq, including in the oil industry.

In Europe, too, Chirac is equally adept at playing the statesman and defender of the national wealth. He thwarted efforts to reform the cap, and when Blair objected — noting that cap’s trade barriers on food hurt poor African countries, about which the French President professes to care so deeply — Chirac told the British Prime Minister he was being rude and postponed next month’s Anglo-French summit until early 2003.

Chirac has come out firing to bolster the political, economic and cultural clout of Paris, to check the shift of the E.U.’s center of gravity to Berlin and to deflect attention from Washington. On some fronts he’s fighting a losing battle. He took time off last month to lend his backing to a conference of French-speaking nations in Lebanon in a futile bid to stop the relentless march of the English language, spearheaded by American popular culture. But he’s not going to give up. His pistols may not be as powerful as George W. Bush’s, but his aim is true. He will choose his targets carefully — and frequently — before he rides off into the sunset.