Responding to criticism for having invited a British Euro-skeptic to a seminar, Olofsson noted that the fervently integrationist Fischer had also addressed a seminar organized by the ruling Socialists two days earlier. She added: "He was a terrorist. Shouldn't he have been allowed to come either?"
Fischer, once a radical left-wing streetfighter, played a leading role in channelling the extra-parliamentary German left away from violence.
Olofsson said yesterday: "It was a mistake."
Despite a mood of historic self-congratulation, there was some bad feeling in the convention too, with complaints that France and Germany had hijacked the agenda to suit their own needs.
Jens-Peter Bonde, the Danish Euroskeptic MEP, opened his speech with a sharp: "Congratulations on the new superstate!"
What little harmony was to be found elsewhere in Europe on Thursday came from the representatives of countries eager to cash in on the Italo-German showdown.
Pawel Lewandowski, the head of the Polish tourist board, invited Schroder and his family to visit what was intriguingly described as Poland's "Tuscany," while the Austrian Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein urged him to consider a visit to Germany's southern neighbor, where there was "no need to fear an orgy of insults."
Back at the convention, Giscard steadfastly ignored the antics, preferring instead to strike an inscrutable note as the convention came to an end. He turned to the onyx Chinese tortoise with a dragon's head which has sat on the rostrum as a symbol of his stately but steady pace.
"She guided us as she did the first Chinese emperor until we reached the river banks," he said, and handed her some lettuce leaves.
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