Cablegate: Media Wrap-Up: Chavez Re-Elected, Castro Fades; Foreign

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RR RUEHIK RUEHYG
DE RUEHFR #7729/01 3421613
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081613Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3666
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1464
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0270

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007729

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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.

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SUMMARY
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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.

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LATIN AMERICA AND THE U.S.--THROUGH FRENCH EYES
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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."

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ROYAL TRIES HER HAND AT FOREIGN POLICY
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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

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BAKER COMMISSION AND IRAQ
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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"
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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."
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