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PHILIPPE WOJAZER/REUTERS
OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA
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The age-old rift between the British and the French widened as Tony Blair's passionate support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq ran headlong into Jacques Chirac's strenuous opposition to it. The clash defined the year for both men—and for Europe as a whole
All in all, 2003 has been a pretty good year for Jacques Chirac. Sure, it wasn't always pleasant to be vilified by the Anglo-Saxons as President of a nation of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" for his stance on Iraq . But nothing eases the sting of abuse like saying "I told you so," as Chirac can—at least for now—about the lack of international threat posed by Saddam before the invasion and the perils of U.S. occupation after it. If the French President seemed less concerned about the dictator's reign of terror over the Iraqi people, he tried to make up for it after Saddam's capture, calling it "a major event" that would "permit the Iraqis to become masters again of their destiny." Recently Chirac has returned to a domestic agenda: fighting cancer and anti-Semitism, supporting a controversial ban on Muslim head scarves and other religious symbols in state schools, trying and generally succeeding to look vital despite advancing age and reports of a hearing problem.
For Tony Blair, it has been a pretty rotten year. Standing shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush may have looked better to Blair in January than it does now, although Saddam's arrest afforded him a measure of vindication. But the Prime Minister's participation in the war angered many in Britain and his own party and alienated an even larger percentage on the Continent, perhaps ending Blair's hopes of a future role as a European Union potentate. He also had to endure the inquiry into the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly, and now faces a Conservative opposition starting to find its feet under a new leader, Michael Howard. But Blair still passionately believes the war was right, that Saddam's capacity to build weapons of mass destruction was worth eliminating even if no actual weapons have yet been found.
Chirac, of course, was just as steadfast on the other side. His critics can quibble over what's behind his insistence on international cooperation in Iraq , but they can't say his stance has changed much, from the 2002 resolution on inspectors to his current ire over France being cut out of prime reconstruction contracts. So did each man get his just desserts? Opponents of the war might say so; others would argue that it's still too soon to call this match and that Bush and Blair will be proved right in the long run. In the meantime Chirac and Blair, barely speaking a year ago, have tried to put a gloss of courtesy on the relationship central to Europe 's hopes of one day punching its weight on the world scene.
Although the personal chemistry between Chirac and the younger and more earnest Blair was never particularly warm, each has a high regard for the other's political skills. When Chirac was re-elected in May 2002 after routing the xenophobic Jean-Marie Le Pen, former Blair aide Alastair Campbell praised Chirac as a "great clanking politician" of the sort Britain could do business with. Likewise, Chirac is said to admire Blair's fleet and clever political instincts. But they couldn't be further apart on Iraq —and on their countries' relations with America . Where Chirac sees a rivalry, Blair sees a powerful need for a healthy alliance. In a speech in November, he proposed a simple trade-off: "If we in Britain can ask that France overcome its traditional hesitation toward America , they are entitled to ask the same of us toward Europe ." That's no easy task given the Euro-skeptic tabloid press in Britain and the heady visions of a Franco-German union in Paris . But since new American military interventions aren't likely in the coming year, how Chirac and Blair get along in 2004—the 100th anniversary of their countries' entente cordiale—will have less to do with Bush and more to do with Chirac and Blair. In other words, it really will be a new year.
Text By James Graff/Paris and J.F.O. McAllister/London
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