THE half-day visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Dublin on Monday was a blast. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t conquer everyone he met, he was, as the French would say, formidaaable.
After he left, even the No campaigners were grudgingly admitting that his grasp of the issues on the future of Europe was impressive.
Given all the controversy that had preceded the visit — caused by him saying last week that the Irish would have to vote again on the Lisbon Treaty — officials here were fearing the worst. God forbid he should tell the truth! Again!
He was too impulsive, they said. He might blurt out anything. He could not be relied on to play the political game like our politicians have been doing, talking about a “period of reflection,” “a lengthy consultation process,” and about “respecting the result of the referendum,” while all the time they’re trying to figure out a way to run the referendum again and get a positive result.
You will be aware that the majority of the Irish people voted to reject the Lisbon Treaty just over a month ago. You may also be aware that this has caused consternation among politicians across Europe because the Lisbon Treaty provides new structures for the enlarged 27-nation European Union.
Every other country in Europe was able to ratify the treaty by a vote in parliament. But in Ireland, because of the requirements of our constitution, it had to be put to a national vote, and the Irish people voted against, dropping the whole of Europe in the merde!
It’s a gigantic mess. It may have been 26-1, but the game was lost.
The structural reforms necessary to make the enlarged Europe manageable cannot be implemented because of the Irish vote. We, who have benefited so much from Europe over the past 30 years, have bitten the hand that fattened us up. The rest of Europe is looking at us, aghast at our ingratitude and insularity.
Last week, in private remarks that were supposed to be off-mike, Sarky reflected this irritation when he said to some of his colleagues that the Irish would have to vote again. He probably said a lot more about us as well, but sadly that’s all we got to hear about.
Because France holds the European Presidency (it’s rotated around the member states every six months) it is Sarky’s responsibility at the moment to start sorting out the mess. Hence the flying visit to Dublin.
His undiplomatic remark last week was regarded by officialdom here as a dreadful faux pas (what else!) because it would annoy the Irish people even more and make them even more determined to vote No again the next time. If there is a next time, that is. What we needed was a softly, softly approach, not the little emperor blundering around saying that we would have to vote again.
The media here lapped it up, and poor Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen’s visit to New York last week was blown off the front pages by headlines basically telling Monsieur Sarkozy to mind his own business. How dare he tell us we would have to vote again! Sacre bleu! Such French arrogance!
In spite of having his U.S. trip buried by Sarky’s outburst, Cowen calmed the situation by insisting that the French president was coming to listen and to learn, not to dictate. But the angst over the visit became even worse over the weekend when it became clear that Monsieur le President was only coming for a few hours.
How could he learn anything in such a short time? The No campaigners were outraged.
The French Embassy in Dublin did not help much either. Apart from his private meeting with Cowen in the Dail (Parliament), it was arranged that Sarkozy would hold a round table meeting with everyone else — opposition politicians, Yes campaigners and No campaigners — in the French Embassy.
This meant that the main opposition party leaders were to be lumped in with the No campaign leaders — a raggle taggle assortment of nitwits, lefties, loopers and arch conservatives (Sinn Fein among them). The Fine Gael and Labor leaders were upset by this slight — quelle surprise! — and eventually they were given their own meeting with Sarkozy.
Despite not bringing his supermodel wife Carla Bruni with him, Sarkozy got a warm welcome when he arrived, all high energy handshakes and kisses on the cheeks for Cowen, which is not what they are used to in Offaly at all.
They emerged after the meeting, all smiles and bonhomie. And Mr. Sarkozy, having got the message, radically toned down his rhetoric as he answered questions from reporters.
He denied that he had ever said there must be a second referendum. “I didn’t say on what question there would be a vote and I did not in any way meddle in Irish domestic affairs,” he said. “There is no reason to be angry when saying to people that on a given question, which is yet to be determined and within a given timeframe, you will have to be consulted.”
This exercise in semantics allowed him to deny that he said last week we must vote again (because he did not use the word referendum) but yet make clear that the Irish people would have to be consulted about changes in Europe that are definitely coming. And he emphasized the importance of arriving at some sort of solution before next year’s European elections.
He also made it clear that there would be no renegotiation — the other 26 countries had accepted Lisbon and that was that. But he also said that he did not want Europe to go ahead without Ireland, so a solution had to be found.
He suggested there could be additional assurances for Ireland on the contentious issues of tax, abortion and neutrality (but such assurances would not have the legal weight of the treaty).
On whether he had been undiplomatic, he did lots of Gallic shoulder shrugging and demanded of the reporters, “What was expected of the European president, that I should stand by listless?”
Then it was into the limo and off to the French Embassy to meet the assembled crazies from the No campaign who are responsible for the Irish people shooting themselves in both feet over Lisbon.
Most of those who had been invited were expecting him to hide behind officials, listen and say nothing. But that’s not the Sarkozy style at all. Those who were there say he started by taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves.
He listened carefully and interrupted and argued when he disagreed with the arguments being put to him. There were 18 people around the big table, and Sarkozy had name cards with pictures to help him identify the various pressure group leaders, politicians, trade unionists, employers and farmers assembled to meet him.
He ran the meeting and he was in control. Afterwards those who were there said it was an impressive performance.
And then he was gone, whizzing off to the airport and home to Carla (and who can blame him?). As a charm offensive the visit certainly worked. It will also make people here think more realistically about the consequences of the Irish vote.
The bland assurances spouted by the No side during the referendum campaign are looking very unreliable now. The visit will help Cowen, if it gets across the message that the rest of Europe is not going to sit around for years and wait for this little island out on the edge of the continent to wake up to reality.
Because of that, I’m not completely convinced that Cowen was as angry about Sarkozy’s remark last week that “the Irish must vote again” as he pretended. It set the context for his visit here. And it focused minds here.
Suddenly people are realizing that the EU will go ahead with or without us. And they are asking themselves if they really want a future in which Ireland is on the outside of the European Union and gets left behind.