[R-G] Sarkozy's military plans 'put independence at risk'

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/sarkozys-military-plans-put-independence-at-risk-806328.html
Sarkozy's military plans 'put independence at risk'

By John Lichfield in Paris
Wednesday, 9 April 2008

France's left-wing opposition has accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of  
placing French "independence" at risk by seeking to rejoin Nato's  
integrated military command and by promising to send extra troops to  
Afghanistan.

Socialist, Communist and Green members of the national assembly  
combined to force the first vote of "censure" or "no confidence" of M.  
Sarkozy's presidency. Although the vote had no chance of succeeding,  
left-wing leaders said it was important to draw attention to a  
"dangerous turning point" in French foreign and defence policy.

The Socialist Party's first secretary, François Hollande, leading the  
charge in a two-hour debate, said the "whole of Europe will find  
itself aligned with the United States" if France "abandoned its right  
to make autonomous decisions".

He added: "This turning towards Nato is not only against [France's]  
interests but operates against the stability of the world."

President Sarkozy has said that he will take a decision at the end of  
this year on whether France should rejoin the integrated military  
command of Nato.

Although France has always been a member of the Atlantic alliance,  
President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from the military  
structure in 1966, complaining of American domination.

A few traditionalist Gaullist members of M. Sarkozy's centre-right  
party, including the former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin,  
have attacked the President's decision to consider placing the French  
military under Nato command. However, they were not expected to vote  
with the opposition and the censure vote last night was merely a  
formality.

M. Hollande also criticised President Sarkozy's decision to send more  
French troops – believed to be about 800 – to help the Nato coalition  
against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He said that France risked being  
caught up in a "floundering" mission with no exit strategy.

In response, the Prime Minister, François Fillon, mocked the "gut anti- 
Americanism" and short memories of the French left. It was a Socialist  
prime minister, Lionel Jospin, he pointed out, who first committed  
French troops to Afghanistan in 2001.

Were the left now ready to tell the Afghan people that France was  
pulling out once the going became tough?

M. Fillon said that France would remain what it had always been, "an  
ally of Washington but not its vassal... supportive, but not  
subordinate".