TONY BLAIR’S long career as a political chameleon caught up with him on Thursday October 29th, as European Socialist bosses helped to block his bid to become the first full time president of the European Union, describing him as an unwelcome vestige of the “Bush and Iraq” era. As leader of the Labour Party Mr Blair won three general elections in Britain but served as a centrist who pursued a close alliance with George Bush. That Faustian pact was called in by his nominal allies from the European centre-left, who made clear in a tense meeting before an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels that they would not back him.
The new president’s job involves chairing summits of the 27 national leaders of the EU, and representing them in meetings with other world leaders. The post will be created by the Lisbon treaty, which is now inching towards ratification. At the summit Europe’s leaders offered a written reassurance to the Czech Republic—the only country yet to sign the treaty—that nothing in Lisbon can lead to fresh property claims by ethnic Germans whose descendants were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second world war. The fiercely Eurosceptic Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, has given what senior officials call a “political guarantee” that he will drop his opposition to Lisbon and sign the document, shortly after the Czech constitutional court gives it a green light at a hearing set for November 3rd.
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, offered support for his predecessor Mr Blair, at one point reportedly telling a pre-summit meeting of European Socialist bosses: “You need to get real—this is a unique opportunity to get a strong progressive politician to be president of the council.” But Europe’s serving Socialist heads, including leaders from Spain and Austria, instead will put their efforts towards securing the other top post created by Lisbon, a new foreign-policy chief, or High Representative, who will enjoy a big budget and thousands of staff.
