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Tony Blair received an unwelcome 55th birthday present from France yesterday. President Nicolas Sarkozy has abandoned his efforts to push the former prime minister's claim to be the first permanent president of the European Union Council from next year. M. Sarkozy, who takes over the rotating EU presidency in July, is now backing the candidature of Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, according to senior French officials. The French President was once a strong Blair-backer, floating the idea himself last year, but he has bowed to pressure from other EU governments. Some countries are anti-Blair. Others oppose the idea that the new post should go to a political heavyweight, who might try to inflate the importance of the new job. By supporting Mr Juncker's candidacy, M. Sarkozy could be placing himself on a collision course with Gordon Brown, five weeks after he made a speech in Westminster hailing a new Anglo-French brotherhood.
Tony Blair received an unwelcome 55th birthday present from France yesterday. President Nicolas Sarkozy has abandoned his efforts to push the former prime minister's claim to be the first permanent president of the European Union Council from next year.
M. Sarkozy, who takes over the rotating EU presidency in July, is now backing the candidature of Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, according to senior French officials. The French President was once a strong Blair-backer, floating the idea himself last year, but he has bowed to pressure from other EU governments.
Some countries are anti-Blair. Others oppose the idea that the new post should go to a political heavyweight, who might try to inflate the importance of the new job.
By supporting Mr Juncker's candidacy, M. Sarkozy could be placing himself on a collision course with Gordon Brown, five weeks after he made a speech in Westminster hailing a new Anglo-French brotherhood.
The Anglo Disease in a nutshell. Vampires in action and not even cosncious of their parasitic nature. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
