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The French have taken cruel revenge on a man who was once their idol
timesonline UK ^ | May 31, 2005 | Charles Bremner

Posted on 05/30/2005 3:27:09 PM PDT by phoenix_004

WHAT a difference two years makes. In the spring of 2003, Jacques Chirac was striding the world stage, the idol of France and hero of many other nations for standing up to the “les Anglo-Saxons” and their invasion of Iraq.

The 72-year-old President looked out from the Elysée Palace yesterday on a field of ruins, his long political career blighted by a referendum in which the people took a sledgehammer to France’s role as pillar of the European Union.

“The emperor is naked,” les Echos, the business daily, said. “The Broken Dream of Jacques Chirac,” said Le Figaro, the most pro-Chirac of papers.

Under M Chirac France now finds itself in the European dog house after voters vented their wrath against the President, the political class and the modern world in general.

M Chirac now faces two years in the twilight before retirement, as Nicolas Sarkozy, his rival and leader of his Union for a Popular Movement, manoeuvres to succeed him.

Despite moderate reforms, unemployment has risen again to 10 per cent and real incomes have stagnated. M Chirac is blamed for breaking his 1995 campaign promises to “heal the social fracture”, the unemployment and exclusion that he diagnosed as the main French ill.

True to form, M Chirac went into the referendum campaign with the prevailing backlash against capitalism, now tagged as “liberalism”, and promised that the constitution would protect the country against the free-market jungle. After so many years in which M Chirac’s rhetoric clashed with reality, it was not surprising that a majority of voters did not buy his argument.

The people’s revenge has been cruel. M Chirac has been cut down in the one domain in which he was deemed him to excel: presenting France on the international stage.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chirac; defeat; euconstitution; france
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Poooor chirac!!!!He can spend the rest of his presidency as a lame duck president before he's voted out!!!
1 posted on 05/30/2005 3:27:10 PM PDT by phoenix_004
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To: phoenix_004
Geezzzzzzzzz...they make it sound like his goose is cooked...hehehehehe!!!
2 posted on 05/30/2005 3:28:54 PM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: phoenix_004

Him and the horse he rode in on.


3 posted on 05/30/2005 3:29:29 PM PDT by sgtbono2002
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To: phoenix_004

Now if Bill Clinton would move to Paris, the French would elect him President there. He would be the first non-Frenching speaking president they have had, I presume.


4 posted on 05/30/2005 3:30:10 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: RoseofTexas

Good! He's a back stabbing scumbag!


5 posted on 05/30/2005 3:30:33 PM PDT by ladiesview61
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To: phoenix_004
Step up to the plate, Jacques. You won't feel a thing.


6 posted on 05/30/2005 3:30:53 PM PDT by TADSLOS (Right Wing Infidel since 1954)
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To: phoenix_004
BUSH DID IT !

Semper Fi

7 posted on 05/30/2005 3:32:12 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: phoenix_004

So they backstabbed their hero .... how is that unusual if for France?

They didn't wait a whole lot longer before they started backstabbing us after WWI, WWII or Korea; why would we expect anything different from a country of unwashed, immoral back-stabbing ingrates.


8 posted on 05/30/2005 3:33:30 PM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, come Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: phoenix_004
I am mystified, is Chirac toast or is it the modern world that is doomed?

Talk about full of it, this story is over flowing.

Maybe the French just like their current hammocks, and didn't want to allow any freeloaders to join in.

Whatever -- Anything that sticks it to Chirac, I'm for it. He who laughs last ...It really is too bad that Bush got reelected, while Chirac and Schroeder have fallen on hard times. Leadership, must be something to it after all -- and the world is clearly a better place.
9 posted on 05/30/2005 3:35:11 PM PDT by Tarpon
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To: phoenix_004

On behalf of the Eastern Bloc, Mr. Chirac, it appears you missed a great opportunity to shut up.

Ain't karma a ????? ?


10 posted on 05/30/2005 3:35:39 PM PDT by RabidBartender
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To: phoenix_004

"Cruel revenge" is their characterization of voting down a stupid idea?


11 posted on 05/30/2005 3:35:59 PM PDT by Dr.Hilarious (If Al Qaeda took over the judiciary and mainstream media, would we know the difference?)
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To: phoenix_004
Under M Chirac France now finds itself in the European dog house after voters vented their wrath against the President, the political class and the modern world in general.

This could be interpreted any number of ways...none of them good.

12 posted on 05/30/2005 3:37:30 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: phoenix_004
les Echos, the business daily

Now that has to be a threadbare publication.

13 posted on 05/30/2005 3:38:09 PM PDT by AmishDude (Join the AD fan club: "Very well stated, AD." -- Diana in Wisconsin; "LOL!!!" -- MikeinIraq)
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To: phoenix_004
The people’s revenge has been cruel.

Well, no one can out-sneer the French.

14 posted on 05/30/2005 3:39:00 PM PDT by wimpycat (Hyperbole is the opium of the activist wacko.)
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To: phoenix_004

It is my understanding that a sitting French President cannot be prosecuted while in office. Now, maybe he can be prosecuted for his role in the oil-for-food scandal. He is up to it to his eyeballs.


15 posted on 05/30/2005 3:40:04 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: Tarpon; All

I haven't paid much attention to the entire EU issue, and now find myself a bit "behind the curve" when it comes to understanding the geopolitical consequences of this no vote.

Anyone care to "edumacate" me on what it means for the future of Europe? If it is 300 pages long, I probably would have voted no to it too, just on principle.


16 posted on 05/30/2005 3:41:14 PM PDT by jacquej
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To: phoenix_004
“The emperor is naked,” les Echos, the business daily, said

A "business daily"? In France? Why would France have a "business daily".
Does Cuba or China or North Korea have a "business daily"? Weird....

17 posted on 05/30/2005 3:43:47 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: phoenix_004
The people’s revenge has been cruel. M Chirac has been cut down in the one domain in which he was deemed him to excel: presenting France on the international stage.

I wonder if a certain politician with the first name of George has a smile on his face as wide as mine is at the moment?

18 posted on 05/30/2005 3:46:29 PM PDT by stripes1776
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To: phoenix_004

Jacques Chirac? F*** 'im! Good ridance to bad rubbish.


19 posted on 05/30/2005 3:46:36 PM PDT by dennisw (He writes everything's been returned which was owed...)
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To: Dr.Hilarious

They voted down a stupid idea for even more stupid reasons. These were anti-capitalist, socialist, leftist types who did this, with just a hint of right wing thrown in. Yes, they voted it down, but it doesn't mean that the French have turned over a new leaf or anything.


20 posted on 05/30/2005 3:46:37 PM PDT by wimpycat (Hyperbole is the opium of the activist wacko.)
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