Stars and strife over US policy at Paris show (VOMITING TILL YOU DIE ALERT)

The Times ^ | February 12, 2003 | Charles Bremner and Marie Tourres

[MadIvan]

GIVEN the acrid Franco-American atmosphere, the huge stars and stripes looked like a provocation draping the wall yesterday at the Paris classic motor show.

Hanging above a 1950s Chevrolet Corvette, the scene symbolised everything that the French love about the United States — the spirit, style and energy of the home of les belles americaines, as older US cars are called.

Despite the big chill between Paris and Washington, the fans were busy ogling American cars yesterday, but most were distinguishing between a fondness for things American and disapproval of President Bush over Iraq.

Francois Lempereur, 28, a communications professional examining a 1930s Cord L29, said: “I am generally pro-American, but I don’t understand them any more. They’re incredibly arrogant. Americans go too quickly to the extreme. They are determined to deploy their enormous armada against puny Iraqi resistance like a heavyweight going up against a child.”

M Lempereur’s views were echoed across France yesterday as the country registered the fall-out from President Chirac’s attempts to forge a coalition with Berlin, Moscow and others to stall the American march to Baghdad.

The French, from Alain Juppé, leader of M Chirac’s UMP party, to visitors to the motor show in the cavernous Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, rejected American anger, reflected in vitriolic anti-French media attacks, and held their ground. Mr Juppé, a former Prime Minister who is M Chirac’s political heir apparent, said that France was doing its duty standing up to its ally on principle but had no illusions about the likelihood that the Americans would go to war regardless.

“I would say that today, there is a greater chance, a greater risk, that the war will take place rather than it won’t take place,” he said.

He did not accept American charges of ingratitude. “Nobody has forgotten the debt of blood that we have towards them and the fact that we fought in the same camp, on the side of freedom, during the whole Cold War.” The same thoughts were common at the Retro Mobile show.

Charlotte Tucduale, 52, said: “I really like the Americans and am grateful that they fought for us when there wasn’t any other alternative. But they must know what the price of a life is in Iraq. I think all the diplomatic alternatives have not been tried. It would not be in France’s interest to change its line now. That would be losing face.”

Outright anti-American feeling was also on show. Gilles Teulade, 40, a landscape designer, declined to be photographed by a Chrysler, preferring a 1931 Bugatti. “I have chosen my camp. I think our Gallic spirit is being given full expression at the moment,” he said, likening France’s stand to that of Asterix, the cartoon Gaul, against the Roman Empire. “We are sticking to our position. We are right and other countries are joining us now. We will stand up together against the Americans who are only fighting for oil. We are not fools.”

Daniel Dehenain, 42, a Belgian businessman and collector of belles americaines, said: “I adore the USA and their postive culture. I go there several times a year and am 100 per cent pro-American.

“But Bush is overdoing it. I am very happy that Belgium has lined up with the French and the Germans.” Marie-Claire Fairy, 58, said that Mr Bush was right to start a war quickly. “Saddam is a dictator and a liar and is hiding things. I am a pro-American in the soul. I was born at Sainte Mere l’Eglise. There, we remember why we adore the Americans.” The Normandy village was the site of the American paratroop assault hours before the D-Day landings of June 1944.

There were also signs of the unease that is being felt increasingly over the consequences for France of being banished from American favour after an Iraqi war. “It’s fine to oppose Bush, but we’d better not need the Americans to help us again for a while,” Beatrice Lenoir, 25, a secretary, said. The symbolism of the Normandy landings was widely evoked in France yesterday after the New York Post ran a front-page picture of American graves at the Colville US War Cemetery on Monday and accused France of forgetting its debt.

The Times received a call from Marianne Vanura, a member of an association, whose members pledge to keep fresh flowers permanently on the grave of a chosen American soldier. “When I saw that they were saying France had forgotten, it made me cry,” said Mme Van Ura, 50, who lives in the western Paris suburbs. “It is simply not true that we have forgotten them.” Mr Bush’s policy, she said, had nothing to do with the alliance with America, going back to Benjamin Franklin’s ambassadorship to Paris and Lafayette’s army in the War of Independence.

A new poll for Le Figaro yesterday said that almost three quarters of people thought that France should impose its United Nations veto against any war resolution, but a third thought that the row with Washington was bad for France’s place in the world.

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They are determined to deploy their enormous armada against puny Iraqi resistance like a heavyweight going up against a child.”

The only thing easier than taking out Iraq would be taking out France.

[Smylexx]

said that Mr Bush was right to start a war quickly.

Since when is it Mr?