Taking to the floor to reassess France's relationship with the US

Paris Letter:  Gen Charles de Gaulle once said that efforts to realise French grandeur gave him the impression of being an actor on stage. "I make people believe that France is a great country. It is a perpetual illusion."

The editorial director of Le Monde newspaper, a former Trotskyist named Edwy Plenel, quoted the father of modern France in a debate at the Théatre du Rond-Point the other night, to needle the French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin.

Was France's opposition to the Iraq war and subsequent haggling over UN Security Council resolutions mere histrionics, Mr Plenel asked. "It is not posturing," Mr de Villepin retorted.

"It is a diplomatic reality which gives structure to today's world. We are living through a unique time, through the acceleration of history, which is pushing the European Union to act. We must defend a certain idea of international society."

The quintessentially French debate was entitled "The United States and Us", though some of the participants questioned whether "us" indicated France or Europe.

Mr de Villepin's chief opponent, the former prime minister and would-be socialist presidential candidate Mr Laurent Fabius, criticised the form but not the substance of the right-wing government's opposition to the Iraq war.

Mr Fabius also "regretted" that France voted Yes last week to UN Security Council resolution 1511, which gave US troops in Iraq a UN mandate. France should have abstained, Mr Fabius said.

Paris had vowed not to accept the resolution unless it marked "a radical turning point" in the reconstruction of Iraq. France insisted on a deadline for the creation of a sovereign Iraqi government and a much broader role for the UN. It got neither. Now opposition politicians accuse President Jacques Chirac of "legitimating the US occupation".

"We legitimated nothing at all," Mr de Villepin said. France accepted 1511 "because we recognise the extraordinary complexity of the world . . . The resolution will probably not lead to progress on the ground nor solve the problems of Iraqis, but we wanted to show international solidarity, to show the Americans we are ready to co-operate.

"We are telling them that as long as Iraq's sovereignty is not truly recognised, the resistance will oppose them. I believe that since we voted for the resolution, the US listens to us more closely."

Given the level of mutual antagonism since last winter, it's hard to imagine President Bush cupping his ear to listen to Mr de Villepin. But the French Foreign Minister is an eternal optimist.

The spat was only "skin-deep", he asserted. "I personally don't believe there is anti-Americanism in France. We share a certain absolutism . . . People misunderstood the nature of the Iraq crisis. It was far less of a confrontation . . . all told, the Franco-American aspect was fairly minor. The reality is that there is no Franco-American crisis."

Mr Fabius was waiting to pounce. "You are telling bedtime stories!" he said to Mr de Villepin. "There has been a crisis and there continue to be serious differences."

Mr de Villepin stressed the need to distinguish between pre- war and post-war situations.

"What was at stake was the way in which world crises will be managed in the future," he said. "We acted out of a spirit of responsibility towards the non-aligned countries, towards those without a seat on the Security Council . . .

"The pre-war period was painful. Today, the logic is different. We must go forward, but we are convinced that the situation deteriorates daily, that Iraq is in a downward spiral in which terrorism is thriving."

Asked what they thought were the qualities of the United States, Mr Fabius replied "its openness to immigrants". Mr de Villepin's response showed surprising lucidity about French foibles.

"[The Americans'\] ability to ask questions of themselves and to act together," he said. "In France, we should worry less about settling our little accounts. We could learn a major lesson from the US."

No French debate would be complete without intellectuals, so the Oxford professor Theodore Zeldin, the Bulgarian-born historian and philosopher Tzvetan Todorov and the philosopher André Glucksmann were brought out at half-time to challenge the politicians.

Franco-American relations have not improved in 100 years, Prof Zeldin said. At the end of the 19th century, the poet Baudelaire and the foreign minister of the day were already talking about "the American menace".

In an opinion poll conducted in 1970, only 2 per cent of Americans named France as a reliable country.

Mr Todorov objected to President Bush's "who is not for me is against me" maxim. "This is the argument of totalitarian states," he said. "I know; I came from one."

Mr Glucksmann, who was one of the few French personalities to approve the US invasion of Iraq, said he did so on the grounds of human rights.

"No one here regrets the fall of Saddam Hussein," Mr Fabius responded, "but that was not the goal of the US intervention. Just because an event has had one positive consequence does not mean it should be viewed as positive."