Gap narrows between participants and protesters

EUROPEAN DIARY: They were pruning the giant plane trees along the Ramblas yesterday, showering passers-by with tiny petals. It was as if the people of Barcelona were receiving a gentle reward for the graceful way they handled the weekend's invasion of protesters, football fans and the European Union's rotating, summit circus.

Roaming the streets at night, it was sometimes hard to distinguish between the various groups of visitors - anti-globalisation activists, trade unionists, fun-loving EU officials and Liverpool fans.

Fredrick came from Norway to see Liverpool play Barcelona, a match that ended in a disappointing draw. Fredrick was not too put out because, he explained, he is actually a Spurs fan. He is also a critic of the present system of globalisation and takes a keen interest in political and economic theory.

We were standing in a hangar-style bar on the waterfront and I was trying to think of something to say about football or capitalism when Fredrick saved me the trouble.

"My friend thinks I'm gay," he said.

At that moment, we were interrupted by the three-note trumpet call that heralds the start of everyone's favourite disco anthem, YMCA. Fredrick was on the dancefloor in a shot, performing the prescribed hand movements in perfect synchrony and whirling around like an extra in a Michael Jackson video.

Then he was back, grinning triumphantly as he realised that his performance had made him the centre of everyone's attention.

"Do you think your friend might have a point?" I said.

Unlike Fredrick, Sonia has no difficulty working out who she is or where she fits in. A striking, Pre-Raphaelite beauty who has lived most of her life in Barcelona, she feels at home within the international, radical Left.

Sonia took part in Saturday's huge demonstration, organised by the Barcelona Social Forum and the grandly titled Campaign against the Europe of Capital and War. She was teasing her partner, David, for attending Thursday's march by European trade unionists, telling him he had chosen the bourgeois option. He explained reasonably that, as a labour lawyer, he felt it was wise to hang out with his potential clients.

"Everyone I know was at one of the demonstrations. I'm ashamed to say I'm a member of the Socialist Party Youth but I definitely wanted to be at the radical demo," Sonia said.

If the EU leaders wanted evidence of their disconnection with European citizens, they need only have stepped out of their conference centre onto the streets of Barcelona. Inside the summit venue, the leaders proclaimed the importance of their "Lisbon agenda" - a 10-year plan to liberalise the European economy.

But the very measures the leaders are championing - more privatisation, labour market flexibility and a bigger role for private firms in providing public services - are precisely what make many Europeans fearful. The European Commission's dream of a more business-friendly Europe with a smaller economic role for the state sounds like a nightmare for citizens who crave security for themselves and their children.

The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, believes the Commission has been gripped by such ideological fervour that it is serving the interests of the City of London rather than those of the industrialised states. The chancellor, who abhors ideology of any kind, thinks the commissioners would be more in tune with political reality if they were elected politicians rather than the appointees of national governments.

In a scathing attack at the weekend, he warned that Brussels was so blinded by its faith in Europe's internal market that it was proposing measures that would leave important European firms vulnerable to takeover by US investors who have no interest in maintaining Europe's social balance.

France's rivals in the forthcoming presidential election, Mr Jacques Chirac and Mr Lionel Jospin, left Barcelona extolling the virtues of public service rather than of free markets. And Mr Jospin declared bluntly that, despite the rhetoric of the Lisbon Agenda, it was not proven that opening up all sectors to competition gave consumers a better service.

The prospect of a number of centre-left governments losing power in Europe this year has prompted some commentators to conclude that the EU is moving sharply to the right. At the same time, pundits have suggested that the terrorist attacks of September 11th struck the death knell for the fledgling anti-globalisation movement.

But if the leading politicians of Europe's two biggest countries can make common cause with the hundreds of thousands of protesters who came to Barcelona, there is reason to believe that the backlash against the veneration of the market may only be beginning.