FRANCE: But despite the presence of thousands of soldiers, a gunman fired a rifle just 30 metres from President Chirac writes Lara Marlowe, inParis
There were 51 aircraft overhead, tonnes of armour and 3,974 soldiers and firemen parading down the Champs-Elysées yesterday morning, but they could not prevent a lone gunman from firing a shot just 30 metres from President Jacques Chirac.
The 25 year-old gunman, whom police described as "known for belonging to neo-Nazi and hooligan movements", pulled a 22 calibre rifle from a guitar case just as Mr Chirac reached the Place de l'Etoile to review the annual Bastille Day parade.
He fired one round before he was pinned down, not by the the French military or their US guests, but by ordinary tourists and onlookers.
He has a history of psychiatric problems and was being held last night by the crime brigade.
Mr Chirac continued to preside over the day's festivities as if nothing had happened. Paris felt like a military garrison for the day, with olive green coaches parked along the Seine, camouflage jeeps in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and uniforms everywhere.
This year's holiday was dedicated to so many different groups that its symbolism became muddled. One hundred and seventy cadets from West Point Military Academy led the parade, followed by their colleagues from Saint-Cyr, the most prestigious French military school. Both are celebrating the bicentennial of their foundation - West Point by Thomas Jefferson; Saint-Cyr by Napoleon.
The Emperor created the Legion of Honour in 1802 as well, so hundreds of men and women wearing the Legion's medals were also fêted at Mr Chirac's garden party - along with "the heroes of La France d'en bas" and the New York Fire Department. La France d'en bas is this year's fashionable political jargon for "the common people".
Most years, the Elysée presidential palace invites 4,000 guests to its Bastille Day bash. Yesterday, there were 6,000 in what one senator called "a Republican mix of military, ambassadors and the people". In keeping with the theme of Franco-American friendship, the Republican Guard band played the theme song from the film Indiana Jones, My Way and New York, New York. The food, served by the most expensive Paris caterers, was thoroughly French though. Even exotically dressed socialites could be seen greedily gulping salmon with wild mushrooms, a vast selection of cheese, pastries and ice cream.
The New York Fire Department's red and white "pumper" took one month to make the journey by sea. As a curiosity in the parade, it drew more attention than French Mirage jets and armour. "Bastille Day in Paris - it's spectacular," said Chief of Department Mr Daniel Nigro, holding a champagne glass in the Elysée garden. Seventy relatives of the 343 firemen who died in the World Trade Centre travelled with the firemen's contingent, invited by the Paris fire department. "Every one of them is overwhelmed with emotion," Chief Nigro said. "They're being treated like royalty. It's good to see some of these folks smile - they need to smile."
The 170 West Point cadets will spend 12 days with their counterparts from Saint-Cyr. Cadets John Robinson and Christopher Mugg said morale in both the French and US military was extremely high. September 11th , it seems, has given them a raison d'etre, and both governments are now eager to spend more on defence. "We don't have defined borders as enemies anymore," Cadet Robinson said. "It's more groups and factions." It had been "awesome" marching down the Champs-Elysées, Cadet Robinson added. "It was a great honour for me to participate. We hadn't done it since the second World War." He felt that the US and its allies were now engaged in "a worldwide battle against terrorism - it's France, Britain, everybody together." The cadets would not comment on US differences with Europe over Iraq.
"Wherever we're told to go, we'll go there," Cadet Mugg said.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, stood nearby on the Elysée lawn. He had just returned from Washington and pronounced Franco-American relations "excellent". Unlike his predecessor, Mr Hubert Védrine, Mr de Villepin has never called US policies "simplistic" or "dangerous". France shared US concerns about proliferation, the Foreign Minister said. He thought prospects for a Middle East peace conference were good, and that Israel's security and economic needs would lead its Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon to negotiate with the Palestinians.
Mr de Villepin, with his thin elegance and aristocratic name, is definitely from La France d'en haut. It wasn't difficult to spot the representatives of La France d'en bas, invited to the garden party in the interest of social integration.
Abdel Régis (22) attended with other organisers of a youth association in the immigrant suburb of Bourg-la-Reine. "I don't have an inferiority complex towards other people here," he said. "We don't want to be looked upon as wild animals, as token beurs (north African immigrants). I was born in Algeria, and today I'm a student at the Sorbonne. There is opportunity in France; it's harder for immigrants, but you can do it." For him, Bastille Day was an international holiday symbolising revolt in the name of freedom and human rights. "Today, we're enjoying the privileges of la France d'en haut," Mr Régis laughed, looking at the tables laden with canapés and champagne. "For them, this is routine."
In his Bastille Day interview, which was broadcast from the garden party, Mr Chirac said that immigration was necessary, but that France and the EU must implement tougher border controls and crack down on the "monstrous, mafia-like network" of traffickers. The closing of the Sangatte camp on the English Chanel by the beginning of 2003 "will resolve a certain number of difficulties with our English friends", the President said. France's policy of granting political asylum was "part of our culture and history", but it was being abused by people "who have no political or personal security reason - only economic". From now on, he promised, asylum applications will be assessed in less than one month, rather than the current 18 months.
Mr Chirac said he "hopes very much" that France will be able to build a second aircraft carrier. One option under study is to buy an aircraft carrier from Britain, but resources are limited and the French navy will have to chose between a carrier and a fourth nuclear submarine.
"We must strengthen our military means," Mr Chirac said. "We have for some time fallen behind England, and that has serious consequences for our political power, and also for our ability to defend our interests in the world and our citizens abroad." The Raffarin government voted an extra €908 million in military spending for this year. Ms Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, says half of French tanks and fighter planes cannot function for lack of spare parts, and that 60 per cent of Gazelle helicopters are out of service.
Only one well known socialist, the former finance minister Mr Laurent Fabius, was glimpsed briefly at the party, which seemed to celebrate the centre-right's election storming of the Presidency and the National Assembly rather than the Bastille.
The elections were "the culmination of an extraordinary political, human and historical adventure," crowed Ms Roselyne Bachelot, the minister for the environment. Mr Jean-Marie Colombani, the editor of Le Monde, called it "a Chiraco-Chiraquienne" Bastille Day. "Chirac liberated," said Le Journal du dimanche, referring to the end of five years of "cohabitation with the socialists".