I’m surprised this didn’t get more play when it happened a few weeks ago. Or maybe it did, and I just missed it while in the UK.
Jacques Chirac, feeling his oats as the leader of the Grand Anti-Alliance, took the opportunity to pass on some words of wisdom to the various Eastern European countries who had been angling for EU membership and who signed a letter supporting the US position on Iraq.
What terms of encouragement did Mr. Chirac have for these potential EU brethren? How did he demonstrate the French commitment to multi-lateralism, and the free interchange of ideas? How did he sell the EU as someplace where all are welcome at the table?
Chirac said: “These countries have been not very well behaved and rather reckless of the danger of aligning themselves too rapidly with the American position.”
“It is not really responsible behavior. It is not well brought-up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.”
“I felt they acted frivolously because entry into the European Union implies a minimum of understanding for the others,” Chirac said.
Chirac called the letters “infantile” and “dangerous,” adding: “They missed a great opportunity to shut up.”
That’s tellin’ ’em, Jacques. All EU members are equal, after all, but certainly some of them are more equal than others.
Chirac did allow that countries already part of the EU ought to be allowed more slack if they supported the US. “When you are in the family … you have more rights than when you are asking to join and knocking on the door.”
Of course, if that’s the sort of attitude that Chirac’s been broadcasting up until now, no wonder some of these countries aren’t falling in line, simplisme types that they are.
Chirac, to be sure, doesn’t speak for the EU. Or does he?
European Commission President Romano Prodi said he was saddened rather than angry with the candidates because their pro-Americanism was a signal they had failed to understand that the EU is more than a mere economic union.
“I would be lying it I said I was happy,” he told reporters. “I have been very, very sad, but I am also patient by nature, so I hope they will understand that sharing the future means sharing the future.”
Nice to know how it is that the Euros can recognize American black-and-white thinking — they have plenty of examples of their own to compare it to.
Just to quibble with the translation in this report: Chirac said “se taire”, which means “be quiet” or not “shut up”. In the language of diplomacy, the nuance is the message.
I guess French is ze language of love, not ze language of diplomacy.
Well, if we weren’t talking about Chirac, I’d disagree [grin].
And what our dear M. Chretien speaks doesn’t really qualify as French. Or English, for that matter!
Steve … how many languages do you speak fluently? Being a bilingual Canadian anglophone, it urks me to hear all the comments against someone who’s actually able to deal with ALL kinds of issues in both his mother tongue AND a foreign language. The unilingualism of anglophones.
BTW, Chirac … not the most eloquent IN HIS MOTHER TONGUE …