Slipping and sliding
Gavin Bowd looks at the problem with Old Europe
Britain and Tony Blair are plagued by the wrong kind of snow. When the British prime minister left for the United States, via Madrid, his nation was paralysed by very modest cold snaps and snowfall. It was a sickening and embarrassing reminder of New Labour's abject failure to improve public transport and roll back the decades of individualist excess that have reduced the country to a basket case. Those stuck in traffic jams or the unreliable and often filthy trains made no secret of their envy and nostalgia for the efficient systems to be found on the continent, now known disparagingly as "Old Europe".
It did not stop there. At Camp David, Blair and Bush had hoped to re-enact the historic War Summit in the simple cabin where Churchill and Roosevelt laid plans to liberate the world from tyranny 60 years before. Instead, a combination of sub-zero temperatures, biting winds and freezing rain conspired to deny this moment of historical theatre. When the proto-Churchillian Blair emerged from his aircraft at the outskirts of Washington, there was snow on the ground and most of it had blown over the well-worn, red-carpeted steps rolled out to greet him.
There was a motorcade, but the same stream of glamorous taxis had been used for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Saudis. The only thing that travelling British journalists could garner from their highly- policed visit was the nervous body language between Blair and Bush. Blair, under fire from his party members and the outside world, insisted that a second UN resolution was necessary. The governor of Texas seemed less than convinced by this gloss on their discussions.
And yet, such nuances aside, Europe seemed irreconcilably divided on its attitude to the coming war against Iraq. Blair's friends include the Thatcherite leaders of Spain and Italy. They are joined by the former Communist leaders of Hungary and Poland. The latter are colourful examples of political debauchery. Former opponents of US imperialism line-up as its most ardent supporters in the fight against terrorism. Just years ago, the likes of Leszek Miller, prime minister of Poland, or Romania's Ion Iliescu, had denounced NATO's campaign against Milosevic. It could be said that their present line satisfies old Communist rancour about Afghanistan and a desire for economic prosperity at any social cost. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld speaks of a "shift of power" in Europe towards the east. In view of the social and economic collapse of these countries since 1989, it would be more accurate to speak of a shift of Western economic domination.
Perhaps Old Europe is so threatening for Rumsfeld, Bush and Blair because it is so much less vulnerable to economic bullying. Despite their problems, France and Germany are clearly more prosperous and pleasant countries to live in than the United Kingdom and its crusading allies. They have stagnant growth rates and high unemployment, but these social problems are not, as in the UK, camouflaged. The reluctance of Paris and Berlin to join in the punishment brigade for Iraq cannot be dismissed as the caprice of the privileged. The Franco-German summit, where an anti-war line was hammered out, marked 40 successful years of reconciliation between nations that inflicted searing pain upon one another and the world. On 31 January, another anniversary, that of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, was a reminder of the horrific effects of war. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder represented nations that knew a history of both comfort and killing.
Of course, the last medium superpower, France -- nuclear missiles, but also a performing economy and civilised social system -- and the current president of the Security Council, Germany, could be dismissed as noisy irrelevancies. Chirac has a track record of disastrous political judgment -- who will forget his premature dissolution of the National Assembly in 1997 -- yet such sins have not prevented, indeed have perhaps helped, his path to the Elysee. France's blunders in the Ivory Coast rather tarnish its criticisms of "cowboy" diplomacy. The German economy is in difficulty, and the state elections of this weekend confirm Schroeder as a lame duck. Tony Blair, proud of his economic variables and Tornado bombers, will feel that he can face such recalcitrance down.
This week, at Le Touquet, Chirac and Blair will meet. It could be the end of a long and public diplomatic spat, an occasion for Gallic swooning into the "rosbif" embrace, another stage in the rapid building of the diplomatic and military coalition that will drive through downtown Baghdad in March. And yet, this declining, out-of-season seaside resort seems a clever choice, another tribute to the dry humour of the Quai d'Orsay: a dying town of casinos and melancholy brothels, still nostalgic for its busy trade with the British rich of the time of the Entente Cordiale. Old Europe will make sure that the runway of Le Touquet is de-iced.
