Chirac Lobs a Series Of Blows at Britain Ahead of G-8 Summit
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Anglo-French tensions heightened yesterday after President Chirac delivered a series of insults to Britain as London and Paris fought to secure the 2012 Olympic Games and faced fresh disagreement at the G-8 summit.
The president, chatting to the German and Russian leaders in a Russian café, said: “The only thing [the English] have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow.” Then, like generations of French people before him, he also poked fun at British cuisine.
“You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that,” he said. “After Finland, it’s the country with the worst food.”
“But what about hamburgers?” said Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, referring to America.
“Oh no, hamburgers are nothing in comparison,” Mr. Chirac said.
Mr. Putin and Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, laughed. Mr. Chirac then recalled how George Robertson, the former NATO secretary general and a former defense secretary in Tony Blair’s Cabinet, had once made him try an “unappetizing” Scottish dish, apparently meaning haggis.
“That’s where our problems with NATO come from,” he said. Messrs. Schroeder and Putin laughed again.
Unfortunately for the leaders, all of whom will be guests of Britain at the G-8 summit opening at Gleneagles tomorrow, the remarks were recorded by a journalist without their knowledge and published in the French newspaper Liberation. The British government reacted with disbelief, saying it would not respond to such undiplomatic comments. British officials were particularly angered by the mad cow remark, saying that France had exacerbated the BSE crisis by refusing to accept British beef after it had been declared safe.
Messrs. Chirac, Schroeder, and Putin were meeting to prepare for the G-8 summit and celebrate the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad, formerly Konigsberg, which was annexed by Russia in 1945. Lorraine Millot, the Liberation reporter who overheard them, said Mr. Chirac spoke in French and his counterparts in German. At least three interpreters were present.
Prime Minister Blair, in Singapore to push London’s bid for the Olympics against the favorite, Paris, was said to be furious when told of the comments. But officials said that, as the holder of the G-8 and E.U. presidencies, he was determined to retain the moral high ground.
