For a man whose presidency will be remembered (if it’s remembered at all) as an impotent and irrelevant failure, l’escroc Chirac has managed to be remarkably destructive. We saw that in the run-up to the Iraq war, and we’re seeing that now in the chaos that has descended onto the EU. You would think that, in the aftermath of his humiliating referendum defeat at the hands of a rightly enraged French electorate, the old crook would have the grace, if not to resign, then at least to eat some humble pie.
Not a bit of it.
Trying to deflect attention from his own failures, he has now plunged the EU into a new crisis by making the modest rebate that Britain receives on its massive (and largely wasted) contributions to Brussels the centerpiece of the current summit discussions over how the EU should be financed.
Predictably enough, that summit has now broken up in disarray (it would be impossible for Blair to agree to reduce the rebate without an agreement to scrap or reduce the EU’s protectionist – and enormously expensive – agricultural subsidy regime), something that won’t be good news for investors who are long the euro.
While, on the whole, my attitude to the EU’s numerous crises is ‘the worse, the better’, there is little doubt that this latest fiasco shows Chirac to be as cack-handed as he is corrupt.
Hit the road, Jacques.
UPDATE
Over at the excellent EU Referendum blog, Richard is right to make it clear that – dramatic sounding as the current crisis sounds – no-one should be writing obituaries for the EU any time yet, not least (as Sweden’s prime minister is right to point out) because the existing budgetary arrangements are good for a good while to come.
Richard also takes time out from his analysis to tell his readers what he thinks about Luxemburg’s prime minister, a man (I seem to recall reading) who allegedly started Bushlike sobbing in the wake of the French referendum result.
“Into that hothouse has been pitched the extraordinarily incompetent Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, a country little larger than an average English borough with a gene pool to match. His inept handling of the presidency, his frankly crass management of the Council negotiations, and his lamentable performances at the press conferences, have virtually single-handedly turned a minor drama into a crisis, giving the press gallery copy they would kill for. With Chirac playing the drama queen, decribed by the media as “puce”, and a Schröder, “white with rage” puffing himself up with artificial fury, not least because Blair is cosying up to Merkel, all it needed was for Juncker to come up with his now infamous phrase: “Europe is not in a state of crisis… it is in a state of profound crisis,” and the copy-writers had all they needed.”
This squalid little premier is now saying that he will hand over the
EU’s rotating presidency to Blair “without comment or advice.”
Thank heavens – and good riddance.