Patching up the anti-war damage

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - The McDonald's in the Saint-Denis area of central Paris has a sign that is no doubt unique among the thousands of Golden Arches restaurants in the world.

"No to the American War" says a large streamer above the entrance. "When you eat in McDo or Pizza Hut, you are financing the war," says one sticker plastered across the windows.

The "McDo" in question is not even open. It has been occupied by its staff, who went on strike on March 11 to demand better job security.

After a week or so of public indifference, the strikers realised they could get more mileage by tapping into French opposition to the war on Iraq. Hence the protest sign and the stickers that bracket their employer - a McDonald's franchisee who, ironically, is an Arab - with President George W. Bush, both of whom are blamed for "bombing trade union rights and crushing the right to work".

Media coverage has been huge. A petition at the restaurant doorway is signed by passing Parisians, many of whom say they are doing so because of their hatred of Bush and, say some, because they dislike Americans in general.

This sketch gives an idea of the intensity of feeling that has been stoked in France by Bush's aggressive drive to unseat Saddam Hussein - but also by French President Jacques Chirac's unshakeably Gaullist opposition to it.

It also explains why France and its anti-war ally Germany face problems as they try to repair the damage caused to their ties with America.

Both are finding that their manoeuvring room is limited and their hopes for a revival in the relationship are mainly pinned on the period after the war.

"The rifts are deep," said Francois Bayrou, a rightwing French politician.

"In Iraq, Washington will see that it does not depend on allies to lead and win a war, but that it does need them for political and economic reconstruction thereafter," said Berthold Kohler of the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung daily.

France has made several small but significant gestures. It has sent a squadron of troops who specialise in chemical warfare detection to Qatar, in a token of solidarity with that Gulf country. It has publicly defended its decision to give US warplanes the right to overfly France for Gulf operations, a position that is at odds with its opposition to the war.

A panel has been set up to lobby, although without much optimism, for French companies to be given a share in the bounty of postwar reconstruction contracts. The Government has said the US could count on its support if Saddam uses weapons of mass destruction against US troops.

But the stern rhetoric remains unchanged: there is no sign of diplomatic flexibility, either on principle or out of political interest.

Having cast himself as the UN's defender, and in so doing seen his domestic approval rating surge to 75 per cent, a record since the aftermath of September 11, Chirac has stuck by his opposition. He has threatened to gainsay any US-British postwar administration of Iraq, saying the United Nations is the only body which could be responsible for rebuilding that country.

"No country can set itself up as the world's guardian," his foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said last week.

Germany also faces Washington's disapproval and retaliation from angry American consumers, but has more wriggle-room because, unlike France, it has no right of veto on the UN Security Council.

Despite big squabbles in the Social Democrat-Green coalition, it has given US warplanes overfly rights and its armed forces are guarding American bases in Germany, thus freeing up American troops for the invasion of Iraq.

But it has been effective in pressuring Turkey not to send troops into Iraqi Kurdistan, a move that could upset the US strategy.

Turkey is suspected of wanting to make a grab for the oilfields in Kirkuk and crush the local anti-Saddam Kurdish militia, the peshmerga, who are allied with the US.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned that if the Turks moved across the border, Germany would pull back Patriot missile systems that it has lent Turkey and recall German crew who help to patrol Turkish airspace aboard Nato's AWACS surveillance planes.

Germany has also played a leading role in forging the European Union's opposition to any Turkish incursion. European Union officials have warned Ankara that it could kiss goodbye to its dream of joining the EU club if it did such a move.


Herald Feature: Iraq