Name: Warship's recall a failure for Chirac
Uploaded: 2006-02-16T17:24:16+05:30
Description: The episode will be embarrassing for Chirac in view of his appeals for better defence of the environment.

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Paris: France's political opposition and media on Thursday dubbed the debacle over the asbestos-lined warship Clemenceau a humiliation for France and a personal failure for President Jacques Chirac. 
 
Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said the case was a "bitter setback" for Chirac, who was forced to order the ship back home after France's highest court suspended its transfer to an Indian shipbreaking yard. 
 
The decision was hailed as a major victory by environmentalists, after months of legal wrangling over the legality of sending the ship to India, but represents an embarrassing climbdown for the French government. 
 
Calling Paris' handling of the case "improvised and rash", Hollande charged on France Info that the U-turn "would be laughable were it not so sad for our country." 
 
 
Several newspapers said the episode would be particulary embarrassing for Chirac in view of his frequent appeals for better defence of the environment. 
 
"Fifteen months from the end of his mandate, Chirac's image sinks in the Indian Ocean," wrote the left-wing newspaper Liberation in an editorial. 
 
"For someone who spends his time lecturing the rest of the planet on the environment this is a real ecological boomerang," it said. 
 
The Independant du Midi regional newspaper agreed that French leaders had made themselves "ridiculous on the international stage through actions that go against what they preach in their humanitarian speeches". 
 
Liberation and the popular daily Le Parisien also predicted the case risked burying the chances of Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, a close Chirac ally, of running for his succession in next year's presidential elections. 
 
The centre-right Le Figaro tried to defend the government's position, arguing that "no Western navy has found a miracle solution" for dealing with retired battleships.

Warship's recall a failure for Chirac

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The episode will be embarrassing for Chirac in view of his appeals for better defence of the environment.

Warship's recall a failure for Chirac

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