Guardian Utd (June 20): Blair reaches out to the new Europe

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated

Blair reaches out to the new Europe
PM prepares Brussels speech looking to a future without Chirac or Schröder
By Nicholas Watt, European editor

Tony Blair will this week attempt to reach out to the next generation of European leaders when he travels to Brussels for the second time in seven days to declare that he is no Margaret Thatcher.

Bruised by his battles with Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder - who are now regarded in No 10 as yesterday's men - the prime minister will appeal over their heads to reassure their successors he is not an American-style free marketeer.

Mr Blair, who worked on his speech to the European parliament at Chequers yesterday, believes that Europe faces an opportunity with the likely departure of Mr Schröder in Germany's election in September. Mr Chirac, who came under fire in the French press over the weekend for focusing so much attention on Britain's budget rebate, will struggle on until the presidential elections in 2007.
Peter Mandelson, Britain's European commissioner, makes clear in today's Guardian that the Blair circle has given up on the two men. "A new consensus can be found in Europe. You don't have to know much about the political situation in France and Germany to realise that," he writes in a carefully worded article in which he refrains from naming anyone.

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[Lithos]

1. He sure is not the man he claims he is

However, he is no Thatcher. She is more of a Paleocon to his Neocon behavior.

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