FRENCH PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech at the École Militaire on Wednesday, announcing France’s return to the integrated Nato command, marked what is possibly the most significant change in French defence and foreign policy in nearly half a century.
By remaining outside the integrated command since 1966, Mr Sarkozy said, France occupied no top command posts and had no say in defining objectives for the Nato missions in which it participated.
“Formidable!” the French president said sarcastically. “We send soldiers to the field, and we don’t participate in the committees that define strategy. And all that of our own free will, because we exclude ourselves. Nato is the only international organisation in the world where France doesn’t try to be present and influential!”
Reacting to his speech, socialist leader Martine Aubry said “nothing today justifies re-entering the Nato military command”. The only possible reason, she added, was “Atlanticism that is becoming an ideology”.
François Bayrou, the centrist leader who has been a vocal critic of the Nato reintegration, also spoke against the move.
Mr Bayrou said Mr Sarkozy’s decision constituted an “amputation” of France, and promised to vote no in the National Assembly next Tuesday.
But it is criticism from heavyhitters such as former prime minister Alain Juppé and former foreign minister Hubert Védrine that will most irk Mr Sarkozy.
Mr Juppé attempted a similar rapprochement in 1995, and has been sending signals that he would like move back into Mr Sarkozy’s government. Yet, reacting to the presidential speech, he cautioned that “France should keep her specificity, independent spirit and freedom of judgment that are appreciated in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and Latin America”.
Mr Sarkozy has considered making the highly respected Mr Védrine his foreign minister.
But Mr Védrine demolished Mr Sarkozy’s arguments for taking France back into the Nato command in an article in Le Monde, saying “it is the very existence of Nato that should be questioned”.
Mr Sarkozy defended himself against those who accuse him of betraying France’s Gaullist heritage: “Who can claim to know today what Gen de Gaulle would do?”
In a throwback to de Gaulle’s warnings of the danger of “superpower condominium” or collusion between the US and Soviet Union, Mr Sarkozy said: “We’re not going to let the US and Russia sit in a corner and discuss the security of our continent.”
While de Gaulle used to denounce “US hegemony”, Mr Sarkozy reminded his audience that “the Americans came to save us twice” and lamented the “sterile anti-Americanism” which led other Nato allies to distrust French intentions.
By outlining his predecessors’ efforts to move closer to Nato, “usually without saying it”, Mr Sarkozy tried to deflect criticism of himself, and indirectly accused François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac – and their political heirs – of hypocrisy.
The issue is so symbolic and emotionally charged, and Mr Sarkozy and prime minister François Fillon so fear a backlash within their own ranks during next Tuesday’s debate, that Mr Fillon has called a vote of confidence, forcing the right to support the return to Nato command or risk bringing down their own government. A significant number of right-wing deputies are nonetheless expected to abstain.
In an obvious rebuttal to his erstwhile rival, former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, Mr Sarkozy noted allegations that France would have been forced to participate in the Iraq war if it had been in the Nato command. “Lies! Lies! Untruths,” the president shouted.
Mr Sarkozy stressed that France’s nuclear force de frappe remained under national control, and that France alone decided on the deployment of its troops. The weakest link in his argument was that, by returning to the Nato command, France would boost efforts to build a European security and defence policy.
Mr Védrine pointed out: “At no point have the Europeans shown an appetite for a truly European defence. They don’t want to devote more money to defence. They don’t want to replicate Nato efforts.”