Each time we [Britain] must choose between Europe and the open sea, we shall always choose the open sea. And if I have to choose between you [de Gaulle] and Roosevelt, I shall always choose Roosevelt.

Winston Spencer Churchill,
sketching in reality for the French, 1944

However a Royal Socialist presidency may differ from a Jack presidency, it looks to pursue the same French multipolar pipedream, pitted against America -- and those who don't dance to France's tune.

SÉGOLÈNE URGES BRITAIN TO CHOOSE
BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA

November 21, 2006 (Telegraph) - Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, wants Britain to choose between being a "vassal" of the United States, and embracing a French-led drive for European integration, her adviser on Europe has revealed.

... [Gilles Savary, a French MEP and Royal spokesman and foreign affairs adviser,] set out a vision of an ambitious new EU treaty, replacing the EU constitution which has been in limbo since French and Dutch voters voted against it last summer.

Britain would be asked to sign up to the new treaty, but if it rejected calls for increased protectionism, an EU foreign minister, convergence on tax rates and moves to create a European army, then France and her allies would agree a treaty among themselves, he said.

Although Miss Royal "does not want a two-speed Europe," Mr Savary said, he admitted her plans could lead to a "quartet" of nations leading the way, with others scrambling to catch up.

Clearly the EU has slipped away from France. Mlle. Royal is looking to head up a smaller, more exclusive, more manageable, more French-friendly club where France can boss the members around. This is Mlle. Royal's brilliant plan for Europe, to downsize the Euro-crèche so a French caniche looms large.

[M. Savary] complained that Britain currently led an "ultra-Atlanticist" [scil., non-anti-American] bloc within the EU.

... "Great Britain is absolutely indispensable to the European Union. It is great nation, a global power. But the question the English have to answer is – do the English consider the English Channel to be wider than the Atlantic? We on the continent have the right to deplore the fact that Great Britain appears to consider the Channel is wider," he said.

We wonder, has M. Savary considered the cause of this width?

Is it perhaps that Britain and Britons see France as a shameless self-dealer, unreliable and obnoxious and corrupt? That France as a multipolar poseur is reckless and dangerous, feckless and incompetent? That France as a counterweight poseur is, well, a pantywaist? That French exceptionalism is seen as French privilege and French excuse-ism? That one quickly tires of French whining and whinging and pettiness? That a French-led anything quickly becomes a French-led disaster? And that in all of this, the French are always quick to blame someone else (and here and here and here and here)?

We wonder, has any of this occurred to M. Savary? Has any of this skipped cross the mind of Mlle. Royal?

Miss Royal was confident that "Europe can be relaunched with Germany, Italy and Spain. It is perfectly possible to have treaties within the treaty, among four nations," he said. "If other nations want to sign up, that's good. But we cannot have a Europe where one part goes to war in Iraq, another part does not, and we all end up paying the bill."

We are here surprised to discover France suddenly minding her ledgers.

He demanded efforts to integrate foreign policy and cast that struggle in searingly anti-American tones. Mr Savary said: "The question that needs to be asked is – do we want to be vassals of the United States, do we want to be a 51st state?"

That's the nuanced deep-think from the Royal camp on America.

That Mlle. Royal in the person of M. Savary feels compelled to put an obnoxious French ultimatum to Britain -- in M. Savary's colorful B&W rhetoric -- speaks to the weakness of the French position and the historical predilections of Britain. Even were Britain disinclined to America, it would not be inclined to threats to be so disinclined -- most especially big airy threats from the most discombobulated nation on the continent.

Spain and Italy will not a greater France make. (Belgium will be heartbroken without so much as a mention here.) Mlle. Royal's big scheme is nothing without a German piggy bank and the credibility that Britain brings to French doings. Mlle. Royal takes for granted a center-right Germany will sign on.

Of course Mlle. Royal is thinking that today's Socialist Spain and Italy joined by a Royal Socialist France and a still behaved Germany are a forever proposition. Once an electorate is won over to socialism, it is won for good. Ah, but it is yet to be seen whether socialism can win over the French electorate at all, much less in perpetuity.

PFFT (What is this?): Warmed-over Jack 4 | Nuance 0 | Rayonnement français 0