“I must say that I was deeply shocked”, so spoke the commander of the world’s fourth, no fifth, largest economy and nuclear power, explaining why he walked out of a meeting of the European Union’s 25 government leaders and took his foreign minister with him. It’s hard to imagine what could have so profoundly shaken President Chirac, a man who has seen the world and knows its workings.

The circumstance was a civilized presentation to the EU leaders on the current trend of economic protectionism, a trend that France is leading. Top business executive and Frenchman Ernest-Antoine Seilliere was just beginning his talk, telling the leaders that he would “speak in English, the language of business”. Then Le President - who speaks passable English himself - interrupted his countryman in French asking why in the world he was speaking English.

Chirac got instant praise in some circles. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, head of a French nationalist political group, said he “has given new hope to all defenders of the French language” with the “great dignity of his beau geste”.

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