Seventy-five per cent of the French population longed for a Kerry victory but their hopes were dashed yesterday, writes Lara Marlowe, in Paris
French politicians who gathered at Planet Hollywood on the Champs-Élysées at the invitation of the Democratic and Republican parties abroad and TV5, the international French-speaking channel, fantasised about a Kerry presidency into the early hours of the morning.
Imagine a US president who spoke French! Who respected Europe, alliances, the rule of law and the United Nations!
But around 5 a.m. the rhetoric grew more cautious; the Republicans who occupied one table among 900 people grew boisterous. For the others, reality set in: George Bush was in all likelihood about to be re-elected.
France's fantasy of a Kerry presidency was dying.
Three-quarters of the French population hoped Bush would lose, and the disappointment was commensurate with the wishful thinking in the last days before the election. Bush's victory was, in the words of the former foreign minister Hubert Védrine "like a bad hangover".
"The French lived under the illusion that Bush was a sort of aberration, that he wasn't the real America," said Jacques Andréani, France's ambassador to Washington from 1989 until 1995.
Guillaume Parmentier, the director of the French Centre on the United States, made a similar point.
"A Bush victory puts paid to the idea that the result of the last election was against the will of the American people," he said.
"If the Americans have re-elected Bush, they've done it in full knowledge of the facts. Europeans feel the Bush administration is reckless . . . This is bound to widen the Atlantic."
Franco-American relations sank to abysmal lows over the invasion of Iraq. "I've lived in France for 35 years and it has never been this bad, not even when de Gaulle kicked NATO out of Paris," said Constance Borde, the chairwoman of Democrats Abroad and a retired professor of political science.
"It's because this administration is so ideological; it's terrible for anyone who is not white and Christian," she said.
The next clash of will between Chirac and Bush can already be predicted. Paris is pushing for an alternative summit on Iraq, to include members of civil society and possibly the "resistance" in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, later this month.
The French want the official summit to discuss a timetable for the departure of US troops from Iraq - a non-starter with the Bush administration.
Chirac and Bush's mutual loathing makes it difficult to improve bilateral relations.
The government announced yesterday that the French president was holding back his message of congratulations pending confirmation of Bush's victory.
Bush has mystified the French leader with allusions to Gog and Magog, part of the lexicon of Evangelical Christians, and Chirac reportedly considers Bush a religious fanatic.
When they last met in June, at the G7 summit in Georgia and again in Istanbul, Chirac annoyed Bush by refusing to ride in the little golf carts reserved for visiting heads of state, and by refusing to take his tie off. There was a row over the rank of the French official who would attend Ronald Reagan's funeral. And when Bush urged the EU to admit Turkey as a member, Chirac reminded him that the EU doesn't meddle in US-Mexican relations.
Yet despite the bad chemistry, most French commentators believe Chirac had mixed feelings about a possible Kerry victory. It would have been awkward to refuse a Kerry plea for help in Iraq, the argument went. "For Jacques Chirac, George Bush is predictable, and he enables Chirac to be the champion of anti-Americanism," said Pierre Moscovici, a former European affairs minister, now an MEP and head of international affairs for the socialist party.
"Chirac's not on speaking terms with the US administration, which is untenable for French interests. But it's useful for domestic politics."
In the hours before daylight, as it became obvious that Bush was winning, lyricism about a Kerry presidency gave way to timid hopes that Franco-American relations would nonetheless improve. "For Chirac, America is a hot button. Criticising France is throwing red meat to his base," said Robert Pingeon, the chairman of Republicans Abroad.
"And for Bush, bashing the French is throwing red meat to his base. That will diminish as Chirac and Bush head towards obscurity." Pingeon said he was certain that Bush "will make the effort to re-solidify relations with 'old Europe', because both sides need it."
The worst was over with the invasion of Iraq, he added. Other sources mentioned US praise for the French military role in Afghanistan, Haiti and Africa, and the advent of Michel Barnier, a new French foreign minister who is less caustic than his predecessor, Dominique de Villepin.
Jacques Andréani, the former ambassador to Washington, doubted a second Bush administration would be more moderate.
"It's possible he could recognise he's made mistakes and reassess his policy," Mr Andréani said. "But I don't think so. Because Israel is the key, and I can't imagine Bush changing his policy towards Israel."