There were at least 17 presidents of Europe in the square mile around the Place de la Concorde yesterday afternoon. The President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, and President Jacques Chirac shared the podium at the Elysee Palace, flanked by a baleful Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. The three men were meant to explain the visit of the EU Commission to Paris on the first working day of France's six-month presidency, but their press conference was dominated by the latest hitch in Mr Chirac and Mr Jospin's long-running presidential cup.
The real presidents of Europe - the ones the crowd roared for - appeared on the balcony of the Crillon Hotel a few minutes after the politicians ended their press conference, and there was no doubting in whom the public was more interested. The Bleus' coach Roger Lemerre and the 14 French footballers who won the European Cup on Sunday night drew tens of thousands, few of whom knew or cared that France had assumed the EU presidency. "Ah yes," a middle-aged housewife who had brought her nieces from Brittany for the celebration murmured vaguely, "Jospin mentioned it after the match last night."
Victory may be growing routine now - only 400,000 partied on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday night, compared to more than a million when France won the World Cup two years ago - but football joy still outshines European ennui. The rain stopped a few minutes before the French team appeared, and the silver trophy glinted in the sunlight when each player took his turn brandishing it before the crowd. As the athletes sprayed bottles of champagne on to delirious fans, a sea of tricolours waved before them, interspersed with Algerian flags celebrating the origin of Zinedine Zidane. "It's a multiracial team that represents all that young French people aspire to," a psychologist in the crowd told me. "This is the victory of anti-racism."
Two teenage black girls from the east Paris suburb of Charenton contradicted the psychologist. "We came to see Thierry (Henry), (Nicolas) Anelka and (Sylvain) Wiltord - the black players," one said. "This doesn't change anything about our lives."
The psychologist praised the players "who surmounted their individualism and star status to work together". Why couldn't French politicians be more like French footballers, the commentator Catherine Ney asked on Europe 1 radio station yesterday morning. Mr Chirac and Mr Jospin conveyed a sorry image abroad by quarrelling at the very moment France assumed the presidency, she added.
After Mr Chirac advocated a European constitution and a "pioneer group" of more closely integrated countries in a speech to the Bundestag last week, Mr Jospin's minister for European affairs said the president did not speak for the French authorities. Mr Jospin further enraged the Elys ee by implying that Mr Chirac had acted rashly.
Had Mr Jospin simply kept quiet, Mr Chirac's initiative might have died the death of most presidential speeches. But for the second time this year Mr Chirac has scored a European goal against Mr Jospin. An opinion poll published at the weekend showed that 68 per cent of French people want a European constitution, and Mr Jospin is said to be kicking himself.
At their joint appearance with the EU Commission yesterday, Mr Chirac mocked Mr Jospin's euro-prudence. Mr Jospin turned red as Mr Chirac explained "the incident" which neither of them admitted had happened. Mr Prodi then listened intently and Mr Chirac grinned as Mr Jospin explained that "debates on the future" have nothing, but absolutely nothing, to do with the French EU presidency.