Poor Show at Evian

Billed as an opportunity for French diplomacy to reassert itself following divisions between Europe and the United States over the US-led war on Iraq, this week's summit of the world's leading industrialised nations, the so-called G-8, which took place in the French resort town of Evian from 1 to 3 June, was overshadowed by continuing protest in France at government plans to reform the country's pensions and education system.

As leaders of the eight countries -- Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia -- met at the Royal Park Hotel on Lake Léman on the Franco-Swiss border for three days of discussions on themes proposed by France as host of the meeting, French teachers, railway workers, air-traffic controllers and others staged stoppages in protest at government plans to increase the number of years an employee must pay before qualifying for a full pension under the state pensions system.

International media attention focussed on personal relations among the leaders present at the meeting in the wake of disagreements over the US-led war on Iraq, giving airtime and column space to evaluating the warmth of French President Jacques Chirac's handshake with US President George W Bush at the expense of reporting on the failure of those present to advance on issues debated at the meeting.

The one major statement coming out of the meeting concerned security and the "war on terror", with G-8 leaders falling into line with the US in their criticisms of Iran and of North Korea, both members of the US president's "axis of evil".

Against this background, debate in France on the Evian meeting has been less than expected, with the kind of protests traditional at such meetings having been largely diverted to domestic concerns. However, this year's summit was also marked by an attempt by Chirac, host of the meeting, to incorporate themes from the governments, NGOs and others lobbying the meeting onto the official agenda.

Such themes included worldwide access to clean water, the responsibility of states and of business to social development, security and the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, the extension of democracy and the strengthening of civil society. According to an official statement, France wished to see "solidarity, responsibility, security and democracy" as the guiding principles of the summit, with access to water, the fight against AIDS, debt in the South and security being main issues.

The Evian summit was also an opportunity for Chirac to present himself as a champion of the developing world and as leading the resistance to US hegemony in the name of a "multipolar world" characterised by "dialogue" and not confrontation, themes repeated in the French president's speech to the summit.

However, manoeuvres of this kind on Chirac's part were met with incredulity by activists present at Evian and by comments in the French press. According to the left-of- centre French newspaper Libération, "whether Chirac is cynical or sincere in his remarks, the government of [French prime minister Jean-Pierre] Raffarin is distinguished neither for its protection of the environment, nor for the generosity of its aid to the poorest countries, nor for its reform of agricultural subsidies, nor for its opening of markets to imports from countries of the South."

"Those seeking an alternative form of globalisation [to that on offer at Evian] will see that there is often a long way between Chirac's fine speeches and Raffarin's inaction," the newspaper said.

Following years of "cohabitation" in France between a right-wing president and left-wing government, last year's right-wing victories at presidential and parliamentary elections have meant that France's president and prime minister now theoretically speak with one voice.

To discuss the themes on the summit's agenda, the leaders of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal were invited as prime movers of the New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD, launched in 2002 at the Kananaskis G-8 Summit in Canada, together with the leaders of a further six countries considered to be representative of the South in terms of population, economic importance and geographical distribution.

These countries, invited as part of what was described as an "enlarged dialogue" between the Western industrialised countries and the rest of the world, were Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, India, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, bringing the G-8 meeting closer to G-20 for the first day of the three-day meeting.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attended the first day of the summit, representing NEPAD and the enlarged dialogue between the Western leading industrialised countries and Africa and the developing world, before returning to Egypt to welcome US President George W Bush to Sharm El- Sheikh for talks on the Middle East peace process.

As G-8 leaders arrived in Evian on Sunday, French police, wary of the kind of violence seen at Genoa two years ago during a meeting of the G-8, established a series of security zones around the summit venue. Zone 0, immediately surrounding the summit hotel, was closed to all access, while outside in Zones 1 and 2, local residents and visitors were subject to police checks. Border controls between France and Switzerland were re-established, with the majority of border crossings closed.

While comment in the French press has praised Chirac for his attempts to bring Africa onto the agenda of the G-8 meeting, the French newspaper Le Monde commenting that globalisation, which "had been beneficial to China, India and the majority of Asian countries", had "marginalised, even dislocated the economy of the African continent", there was concern that disagreements between Europe and the US on security issues, and particularly over the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, would paralyse the summit.

"Africans lead the 800 million people, 15 per cent of the world's population, who still suffer from hunger and live on less than one US dollar a day," Le Monde said on Sunday, "and Africa has the right to expect the opening of the North's markets to its agricultural products, the running of world commerce in such a way as not to penalise the poorest members of the World Trade Organisation, and access to anti- AIDS drugs."

However, with President Bush announcing that he would stay only one night on French soil, leaving the summit on Monday for the Middle East, and international attention focussed on the fall-out from the Iraq war, there was little prospect of the kind of undertakings wanted by African countries or by the many NGOs attending the summit succeeding.

Commenting on the fact that the meeting would be an opportunity for Chirac to paint himself in Gaullist colours and for France to emerge as the champion of the South against US hegemony, Le Monde said that only if solid decisions were made on the lifting of Northern agricultural subsidies to help Southern countries, trade reform and the fight against AIDS would "the participants at the Summit not have wasted their time on the banks of Lake Léman".

In the event, no initiatives of note on these subjects were forthcoming, leading many to draw the obvious conclusions.

Meanwhile, French attention was distracted by the continuing strikes in France over pension and education reform. French workers already pay up to half their income in compulsory social security contributions to support France's generous health, education and welfare systems. Faced with an ageing population and growing demands on the health and pensions system, in order to prevent growing deficits the government has said it has no choice but either to increase the length of time during which contributions must be paid or the rate of these contributions.

A transport strike brought Paris to a halt on Tuesday, with further disruption expected, and the French government is reportedly investigating emergency provisions to ensure that school students sit their end-of-year exams, faced with threats of boycott by teachers. Attempts at reforming the higher-education system, already overdue, have been indefinitely postponed owing to a wave of strikes and sit-ins at French universities and the abandonment of exams.

France's postal workers, hospital workers, tax officials and others are also on strike.

The last time the French government attempted seriously to reform the pensions and social security systems, in 1995 under the Juppé government, a series of strikes paralysed the country, leading to proposals being shelved and the collapse of the government. Memories of these events have dominated current public debate, with both sides vowing not to back down.