MEDIA WRAP-UP: CHAVEZ RE-ELECTED, CASTRO FADES; FOREIGN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007729 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/PPD, EUR/WE, INR, R E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC PREL KPAO FR SUBJECT: MEDIA WRAP-UP: CHAVEZ RE-ELECTED, CASTRO FADES; FOREIGN POLICY IN FRENCH DOMESTIC ELECTION DEBATE; BAKER RECOMMENDS SHIFT IN IRAQ; NEW FRENCH ALL NEWS TV STATION LAUNCHED. DECEMBER 08, 2006. PARIS 00007729 001.2 OF 002 Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The Chavez re-election and Raoul Castro's "gesture" towards Washington illustrated French views on Latin America's relationship with the U.S. during the first part of the week, while a fierce domestic debate raged about Socialist presidential candidate Royal's controversial trip to the Middle East. By the end of the week the media focused on the Baker Commission's "rebuke" of the President's Iraq policy and Robert Gates Senate hearings. The run-up to the launching of France's 24 hour multilingual all-news channel elicited commentary about its limited funds to counter "contenders such as CNN, BBC World and Al-Jazeera" but also about the need to balance world news presently broadcast in an "American version." End Summary. -------------- -- LATIN AMERICA AND THE U.S.--THROUGH FRENCH EYES -------------- -- ¶2. (SBU) Left-of-center Le Monde described the events of the past weekend -- Castro's "missed" birthday and Chavez's re-election -- as a repetition of history "thirty years later," with the transfer of "a shared history" between two commandants who "projected unfailing anti-Americanism on Latin America." For Jean-Francois Fogel, the comparison spoke for itself because "the two men shared a common enemy, the U.S." But right-of-center Le Figaro concentrated instead on Raoul Castro's "opening" towards the U.S., which it characterized as "the first conciliatory gesture" of a new Cuban era. Chavez's re-election was portrayed as a setback for the relationship between Venezuela and the U.S., and Jean-Christophe Ploquin in Catholic La Croix argued that "while Chavez was enjoying the windfall of his nation's oil revenues, he had better do more than call President Bush 'Satan' if he wanted to set his country on the road to development." Ploquin warned that "siding with his Iranian counterpart set Chavez apart on the international stage" and that while "his oil diplomacy" allowed for a special relationship with Cuba and other Latin American regimes, "it was not enough to get him elected by his peers at the UN." -------------- ROYAL TRIES HER HAND AT FOREIGN POLICY -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal's trip to the Middle East triggered a fierce debate about her foreign policy qualifications. Publicist Jacques Seguela, who was President Mitterrand's and PM Lionel Jospin's campaign manager, argued in an interview in right-of-center France Soir that "with this visit, Royal had not only overtaken Nicolas Sarkozy, she had become a public opinion icon." In an Internet poll conducted by right-of-center Le Figaro, however, 71 percent of respondents responded that "her trip was not beneficial for her image as a future president." Right-of-center Le Journal du Dimanche argued that "Royal was aware of the risks when she chose to go to the Middle East." Former Socialist FM Roland Dumas agreed, in right-of-center France Soir, that "one can and must speak with all the players in the Middle East, where diplomacy must make use of every weapon to counter the signs of chaos." ¶4. (SBU) Royal's apparent passivity, while in Lebanon, in the face of a Hezbollah representative's comparison of Nazism and Zionism, her "agreement" with his criticism of the U.S. and her position on Iran's nuclear ambitions (stricter even than the Non-Proliferation Treaty) fueled a domestic debate that played out in the press along predictable editorial lines. Right-of-center Le Figaro argued that Royal had "fallen for Hezbollah rhetoric," while left-wing Liberation characterized her trip as "worthy of a head of state." In an interview in right-of-center Le Parisien, think-tanker Pascal Boniface concluded that "the Middle East was now officially part of the French presidential race." But in regional La Republic du Centre, editorialist Jacques Camus countered that "foreign policy was so far from the preoccupations of the French that when the time came to vote, the French would remember neither Royal's messy trip to the Middle East, nor Nicolas Sarkozy's 'too courteous' visit with President Bush." FM Douste-Blazy rebuked Royal for her condemnation of Iran's commercial nuclear ambitions, because it "cast doubt on the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty." But in regional La Liberation en Champagne, Jorge D'Hulst argued that Royal "was saying aloud what many capitals thought but did not dare proclaim." D'Hulst contended that "once Iran developed commercial nuclear capabilities, it would be impossible to keep it from developing the bomb." PARIS 00007729 002.2 OF 002 -------------- BAKER COMMISSION AND IRAQ -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Commentators predicted a policy shift induced by the "need to acknowledge failure in Iraq" where a "civil war" was raging. In regional L'Independent du Midi, Bernard Revel predicted that "soon, even Robert Gates would be talking about a 'civil war,' like the media and the Democrats." In right-of-center Le Figaro, Pierre Rousselin predicted that "James Baker would not, as if by magic, change the catastrophic course of Iraq or find an honorable way out for the U.S." But all commentary pointed to "a change of course" in the wake of Robert Gates's statement that the "U.S. was not winning the war." Left-of-center Le Monde saluted Gates's admission "as no small feat" for a man chosen to replace Donald Rumsfeld. Catholic La Croix characterized Baker and Gates as "the old guard to the rescue" of a President who, "having turned a deaf ear to his father's advisors was now turning to them for help." ¶6. (SBU) Philippe Gelie noted in right-of-center Le Figaro that President Bush "saluted Baker's 'tough evaluation' of the situation," while left-of-center Le Monde editorialized on "a lesson in diplomacy" and an "admission of failure in Iraq, the Middle east and vis-a-vis the American people." Left-wing Liberation described the recommendations as "an admission that a military victory in Iraq was not possible," while Philippe Grangereau proclaimed this to be "the harshest rebuke of the President" since he took office. Laurent Joffrin commented in left-wing Liberation that the President "was confessing America's mistake by proxy" through the Commission's "confession of defeat in Iraq." Thirteen regional editorials on Thursday were devoted to "the sounding of the death knell for American conservatism" (Le Courrier Picrad),"a diplomatic and political Tsunami for Washington" (La Provence) and "the end of the Bush Administration's illusions" (La Liberte de l'Est). Dominique Vales in La Montagne argued that "whatever option the President chose, it would contradict everything he had said and done for the past three and a half years." Patrick Fluckiger in l'Alsace contended that "calling Iran and Syria to the rescue" was proof that the U.S. "had destabilized its own foreign policy." But Jules Clauwaert in Nord Eclair argued that "a diplomatic offensive" that would "shake-up established taboos" was the one option left to a President "who will have learned that in the Middle East, one cannot always have the luxury of picking one's interlocutors." -------------- -------------- FRANCE 24 TO "BALANCE AMERICAN VERSION OF THE WORLD" -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) With the splashy launch of France-24, the news television with a French "vision" and hefty government support in French, English and (eventually) Arabic, Catholic La Croix's Guillaume Goubert asked "whether the French channel would measure up to such contenders as CNN, BBC World and Al-Jazeera." While he asserted that "the wager had yet to be won," he also insisted that "the challenge was worth the risks." Goubert concluded that "a French voice" would contribute to more "plurality" in the face of Anglo-Saxon and Arab stations. Goubert used the Middle East as an example and proclaimed that "an equidistant voice would be priceless to address the mass of incomprehension separating the Arab world and the West as broadcast in its U.S. version." In regional Le Telegram, Hubert Coudurier warned against "a voice from the Elysee or the Quai" but argued that "for a nation so greatly defined by the look of the beholder, France needed this showcase." In right-of-center Le Parisien, Alain de Pouzilhac, CEO of France 24 (and friend of President Chirac) said that the network would remain "impartial and independent" and that its target audience was "world opinion makers with responsibilities and who earned more than one hundred thousand euros per year." STAPLETON