The French paper Liberation carried a powerful editorial by its editor in chief, Serge July, last week. Under the heading "Chirac and the broken Europe," France's most influential left-wing editor argued that the failure of the French president to consult the rest of Europe before launching his political offensive against the US was wrong and would cost Europe dear.
The paper also carried an interview with Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimo-szewicz, who protested that his country was opposed to "anyone telling us what our position should be. We are not in the position where there are leaders and we have to follow them."
The same point was made by the Hungarian social democratic party. Its spokesman told a meeting of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels that one of the reasons Hungary signed the letter of eight European leaders, in response to the Franco-German declaration in Paris proclaiming a European position hostile to strong UN action, was that they were asked to. "[Spain's] Prime Minister Aznar phoned us up three times to discuss the letter and its contents. No one from Paris or Berlin called us up before they made their unilateral proclamation."
So the position in Europe is much more nuanced than the crude description of the US-plus-British Prime Minister Tony Blair versus a united Europe hostile to strong action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Yes, public opinion has been hostile but where social democratic parties are in government, they have opted to support a tough line at the UN.
The one big exception is Germany. There, strong anti-militarist politics stretching from the right, via the politically influential German churches, to the activist left is locked into a Nie wieder (Never again) politics. This is a historical reality. It was reflected in the German election when first the opposition, under Edmund Stoiber, and then the Social Democrats and Greeall promised German voters that Germany would not participate in warfare in Iraq.
Yet Germany now supplies the bulk of troops in Afghanistan and is a vital European partner in helping to maintain the peace in difficult parts of the world. Moreover, the US has full use of German airspace and military facilities, and specialized German military units are in place in the Gulf to help deal with attacks using chemical and biological weapons.
It was clear from talks with social democratic politicians in Berlin last week that Germany wants no part of the resurgent anti-Americanism which is animating some of the hostility to the US in European streets. Instead, the clear signals from Berlin are that we need to put behind us the wave of hostile statements that has been lashing through the European press. Blair-bashing in French papers has been as ugly as Chirac-bashing in our tabloids.
Some argue that Tony Blair should have crossed the Channel to co-ordinate with President Jacques Chirac rather than have flown across the Atlantic to talk to President George W. Bush. One might make the same point in the other direction. After Sept. 11 many European leaders flew to New York to be photographed at "Ground Zero" and to pledge "unlimited solidarity" with America in the fight against international terrorism, of which Saddam's Iraq is a major sponsor. When America called in those pledges, not all of Europe wanted to respond.
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