After Bold Step on Syria, French Leader Finds Himself Dismissed as Lackey
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — As portrayed in a satirical television show here this week, President François Hollande is left behind to hold President Obama’s coat while the American leader and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia hold private talks. Mr. Hollande gullibly concludes he is playing a key role. Later in the show, “Les Guignols de L’Info,” a rough French equivalent of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” Mr. Hollande is seen interrupting a visit to a school to ask Mr. Obama’s permission to use the bathroom. If Mr. Hollande ever thought that his decision to stand steadfast alongside the United States in backing a retaliatory strike against Syria would give him new stature on the global stage or help him at home, the last week has been a sharp shock. Public opinion is running strongly against him; a poll published this weekend in the conservative daily newspaper Le Figaro showed about two-thirds of the French opposed to military action against Syria. There are growing demands that he grant Parliament a vote on the matter, and considerable speculation that he could lose if he did. The White House is doing its best to buttress Mr. Hollande — Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit here this weekend, used a televised appearance to make the case, in French, that failure to act would be akin to the Munich Agreement of 1938, in which Britain and France sought to appease Hitler by allowing him to control the Sudetenland. But the French president is learning, like British leaders before him, that close alignment with Washington carries as much risk of looking weak as opportunity to look strong. Earlier this year the French marveled when Mr. Hollande, inexperienced in foreign policy, weighed down by economic woes and often seen as vacillating, executed a swift and successful military strike in Mali. They rewarded him with an increase, though fleeting, in his usually dismal approval ratings. This time around, so far at least, he has not received even that brief benefit. Mr. Hollande is facing an avalanche of sometimes contradictory criticism from left and right: that he is acting rashly in committing France to military action; that he is being too timid in awaiting the go-ahead from the United States and the United Nations; that he needs to heed public and parliamentary opinion and that he needs to assert the traditionally broad powers of the French president to employ the armed forces without parliamentary approval. Perhaps most of all, he is being criticized for failing a basic test of French politics — protecting the country’s pride. Having quickly agreed to join in a military action, France is now forced to wait on the sidelines while Congress debates whether to give its approval. Mr. Hollande’s critics say he looks like a lackey. Even some who have endorsed a military strike have taken Mr. Hollande to task for his handling of the issue. A front-page editorial in Le Figaro by Paul-Henri du Limbert said that no one could criticize Mr. Hollande for wanting to face down barbarity, but nonetheless his strategy left something to be desired. The president, he said, had somehow managed to “throw a spotlight on his own powerlessness.” “It is a singular situation,” Mr. du Limbert concluded. “but no one can expect that France will come out of it looking stronger. “ To some degree, Mr. Hollande’s decision to stand with the United States and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain in calling for a military strike against Syria to “punish” the Assad government for a chemical weapons attack is well in line with French tradition. French troops were gassed in World War I and France has been long been active in trying to ban such weapons. Mr. Hollande’s Socialist Party is generally sympathetic to humanitarian intervention in the case of atrocities. Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr. Hollande’s predecessor, France sought closer ties with Syria, and invited President Bashar al-Assad to Bastille Day celebrations at the Élysée Palace. As a result a number of business agreements were forged between the two countries, most of which have dissolved since the violence erupted. France has other reasons to care about what happens in Syria, including protecting neighboring Lebanon, a former French mandate. It is also being pressed by allies including Saudi Arabia to see the conflict in Syria as part of a broader proxy fight over Iran. Mr. Kerry said Sunday that he had received assurances of Saudi support for a strike on Syria. But for Mr. Hollande, as for Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron, almost nothing on this issue has unfolded smoothly or quickly. Under pressure to win more support from other European countries, Mr. Hollande has now said any action should await the completion of a report by United Nations weapons inspectors on the apparent gas attacks, which took place near Damascus last month and according to American intelligence reports killed more than 1,400 people. When he succumbed to pressure to hold a debate on the matter in Parliament, opponents across the ideological spectrum brought up many of the same concerns being discussed in Britain and the United States. “There was a contagion effect from what was going on in the U.S.,” said Hubert Védrine, a former French former minister who is member of Mr. Hollande’s party. “And people became very aware that Syria is not Mali. And suddenly there were some very difficult questions being discussed. Can we do it? Is it legitimate to do it? Will it achieve anything?” Mr. Hollande’s supporters say he could hardly have anticipated this turn of events, especially Mr. Obama’s decision to seek legislative approval. “What we have seen in recent years is American presidents trying to get more powers for themselves,” said one former adviser to Mr. Sarkozy, who declined to be named because he did not want to look like he was meddling in Mr. Hollande’s affairs. “So, I think it natural that it surprised Hollande that Obama would do something like that.” Nonetheless, Mr. Hollande now faces a Parliament empowered by public opinion, with some members, including his own supporters, still calling for a vote on the issue. Some have suggested that polling the Parliament could even present Mr. Hollande with a deft way of reasserting France’s independence. Noël Mamère, a prominent member of the Green Party who supports Mr. Hollande’s stance, said he wanted the French Parliament to hold a vote on the same timetable as the United States Congress. “I think that is a way to show that we are deciding on our own,” he said. <NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Scott Sayare and Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting. |