IRAQ WAR: French public opinion

Reuters (4/2/03) describes mixed French feelings about the Iraq war: "Anti-war French still want US victory: French people overwhelmingly oppose war in Iraq but 53 per cent still want the US to emerge victors, according to a poll. However a third of the nearly 1'000 people interviewed by pollster Ipsos for Le Monde newspaper said they did not want the US and close ally Britain to triumph. The survey shows a people split between its conviction that President Jacques Chirac was right to oppose war and a sense of allegiance to their traditional Western allies. Seventy-eight per cent said they disapproved of US-British action in Iraq, with almost as many saying Chirac had been right to oppose war in the UN Security Council. But 16 per cent said they "really wished for" a US-British victory and a further 37 per cent said they would prefer one, giving a total 53 per cent. Thirty-three per cent said they did not want the two allies to win, with 14 per cent not replying. While the French approve Chirac's decision to stay out of the war, a majority believe this should not exclude them from any post-war role. A strong 72 per cent said Iraqi reconstruction and peacekeeping should be managed by the UN". RH: On the last point, French hopes to take part in the reconstruction of Iraq seem illusory.

Ronald Hilton - 4/2/03