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Chirac nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Jimmy has one, so does Yasser. Looks like we're going for the trifecta.The French president, Jacques Chirac, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to avoid a US-led war against Iraq, it emerged yesterday. The news came as Mr Chirac was preparing, amid protests in Paris, to welcome the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, and other controversial leaders to a two-day summit of African heads of state due to start today. I just loved the juxtaposition of these two sentences. The Guardian editor obviously was asleep! It also follows uproar in eastern Europe after he told former communist states hoping to join the EU that they had been "infantile" and "reck less" to support the US on Iraq. For someone who before his re-election nine months ago was widely seen as a charming chancer who had achieved nothing of note in a 40-year career and would be in prison were he not in the Elyse palace, Mr Chirac's return to the world arena has been spectacular. The Elysee said it did not know who had submitted his name to the Nobel Institute, ... Lessee now: Colin? Nope. Condi? Nope. Tony? Don't think so. I'm running out of nominators. But if Mr Chirac can take credit for building an international axis of opposition to an early attack on Baghdad, some observers wonder whether the success has gone to his head - or whether his quest to star on the diplomatic stage is betraying less principled motives. Less principled? Oh, giggle. He's French fer crissakes! "In publicly criticising the eastern European applicants to the EU, Chirac has made the same mistake as the US officials who have attacked 'old Europe' and demanded that their allies be either 'with us or against us'," the daily Lib¿ration said in an editorial. "Arrogance is never a good policy." And when a French newspaper tells you that you're arrogant, you're really over the top. After five years with his diplomatic wings clipped by a Socialist government, Mr Chirac is plainly enjoying throwing his weight around. But one western diplomat warned: "He's overplaying his hand. The outburst against eastern Europe and the red carpet for Mugabe could lead people to doubt the sincerity of his stance on Iraq. Faced with such apparent double standards, you could legitimately start questioning his real motives." Clearly a deserving candidate for the Nobel! Posted by: Steve White 2003-02-20 |
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