Hardaker: It might sound like a protest from the West Bank, but its not its France, and the man being called to lead this pro-Palestinian chorus is a once humble French farmer -- his name - Jose Bove.
Crowd: Jose!, Jose!
Hardaker: On the streets of Paris tonight its Jose Bove, not president Jacques Chirac who rallies the people But the President and the farmer could be reading from the same script.
Bove: This is a demonstration against those who want war -- against first Bush against Blair against Berlusconi, against Aznar -- all those who want to take us into war.
Defarges: Of course Jose Bove has no electoral mandate, he has never been elected and his popularity is very volatile.
It is why he must move with the stream and today the prevalent stream inside the European Union is of course pacifism, it is against war.
Hardaker: Far from the national capital and the international stage of President Jacques Chirac Jose Bove hails from another land Frances rural south, the Lazarc region. From his hilltop farm, Jose Bove has launched assault after assault on what he sees as the evils of international big business. Five years ago it was the bogey of Genetically Modified crops.
Bove: If this goes on all over the world it is going to be the end of the family farm.
Hardaker: Typically, Jose Bove took direct action.
Bove: So the first time we went inside a factory and we found the GM crops, the corn and we mix with ordinary corn so it was impossible for the transnational corporation Novartis to use it any more because it was impossible to know which was the good one and which was the bad one.
Hardaker: For that multimillion dollar act of sabotage, Jose Bove has been convicted and faces 14 months in prison.
Hardaker: But it was the Big Mac attack of 1999 that made Jose Bove a true folk hero. Bove and a group of farmers took apart the local McDonalds, to retaliate against a World Trade Organisation decision which hurt the regions Roquefort cheese makers.
Bove: People didnt know anything about WTO and the fact that WTO was deciding what you have to eat everyday for French people and European people in general, it was terrible.
Hardaker: The WTO, genetic modification, globalisation -- symbols in a struggle for French identity. It all fits neatly into Jose Boves anti-US, anti-war message.
Hardaker: And its why this bus load of locals travels with him on an 8 hour odyssey to Paris where theyll march in the streets.
Bove: People say why does the United States want to go to Iraq. The only reason is oil and everybody sees this. Whats happening now in Iraq is just the next step for the United States to control the production of oil, so people think that this war is only a war for oil
Defarges: Its clear that in France that there is anti-Americanism root, and its very deep and why? We cannot accept to be inferior, you know. In France, the French mentality we are equal to the United States. We are equal. France, when you look at the media, when you read the French newspaper, France is equal to the United States. Is it true? I dont know.
Hardaker: As world wide demonstrations against war on Iraq got underway, in Paris, Jose Boves messages hit all the right buttons.
Gulf war veteran: Why opposed to the war? Its so that we dont make the same mistakes we made in 1990 and 1991.
Hardaker: These veterans from the first Gulf War marched with 27 replica coffins in memory of colleagues killed in that conflict.
Gulf war veteran: I am a soldier from the Gulf War and the Balkans, and I can tell you I am not the same as I once was.
Hardaker: The demonstrations gave power to the arm of the United States chief tormentor, Jacques Chirac, whod been fending off American claims of rank opportunism. Jose Bove led the Paris demonstration, his views eagerly sought by Frances national media. Whats clear that this is not only about the United States position on Iraq its about a clash of cultures.
Bove: When US refuse to recognise the international court, people dont understand. When Mr Bush refuse to go on with Kyoto negotiations, people dont understand. So people are angry against that, but they are not angry against the American people.
Defarges: Jose Bove is Asterix, you know. You cannot understand Jose Bove if you dont know this typical French or Gallic character who is Asterix.
Hardaker: What do you make of that description?
Bove: Its a joke, but for people Asterix represents resistance to oppression or resistance against the empire, Roman Empire. So maybe a lot of people understand this as resistance against globalisation globalisation is the new way of the empire.
Hardaker: But the other reading of Asterix is that he embodies traditional French values which are no longer sustainable in the world the way it is these days.
Bove: I say very often that Asterix was in his little village surrounded by the empire. We try to do the other way, that we want to surround the empire, thats the new way to make resistance. So we want a million of Asterix all over the world.
Hardaker: For the Bush administration, one Asterix is perhaps enough. President Jacques Chirac whos hijacked the European debate on the US-led war -- is another version of the same character, in the eyes of Philippe Moreau Defarges.
Defarges: Yes of course. You know there is a strong French tradition, coming from before de Gaulle and what is the idea? I am a free man. I dont speak in the name of French interest, I speak in the interest of mankind, of humanity, and facing this big power, the United States, which is our friend, but it is such a big power, I must defend, I must protect this basic right of humanity.
Hardaker: Frances distinct distaste for war continues to infuriate the United States. An old friendship is being strained to breaking point. Omaha Beach, Normandy -- where wave after wave of American servicemen were killed in 1944 as they came ashore to liberate France. If there is sacred ground for the Franco-American friendship, this is it, the American war cemetery at Colville sur Mer -- over nine thousand crosses bear testimony to the loss of American life.
Here, charges of ingratitude and cowardice have alienated even the United States best friends.
Vanura: Ooooh I was as sad as I was angry. But thats politics.
Hardaker: Marianne Heldin Vanura continues to honour the dead. Shes one of a number of French people who have close ties with the families of the US servicemen who died here.
She and many others were devastated by this front page attack from the New York Post.
Vanura: Its really immoral, its really, really horrible to do that. Its the lack of respect. Its the biggest show of disrespect to a person who has died, to use their grave without consent for such an inappropriate subject.
Hardaker: Despite the bonds made in blood, this friend of America in this small village believes the United States must get United Nation backing before it invades Iraq. Jose Bove is no supporter of Saddam Hussein but he sees no reason for war on Iraq.
Bove: European people, French people live near the Mediterranean sea. We live very clear near the Arabian people and we know that if this war goes on this is going to destroy all whats happening in this area.
Hardaker: Whether or nor France backs a US-led attack, Jose Bove is a winner he gets to keep his moral rectitude.Every day France remembers the cost of war. Now the country is gambling that its opposition to war will pay off by strengthening its hand in the Middle East and in Europe. For the moment at least, that seems a good bet.
Crowd: Jose!, Jose!
Hardaker: On the streets of Paris tonight its Jose Bove, not president Jacques Chirac who rallies the people But the President and the farmer could be reading from the same script.
Bove: This is a demonstration against those who want war -- against first Bush against Blair against Berlusconi, against Aznar -- all those who want to take us into war.
Defarges: Of course Jose Bove has no electoral mandate, he has never been elected and his popularity is very volatile.
It is why he must move with the stream and today the prevalent stream inside the European Union is of course pacifism, it is against war.
Hardaker: Far from the national capital and the international stage of President Jacques Chirac Jose Bove hails from another land Frances rural south, the Lazarc region. From his hilltop farm, Jose Bove has launched assault after assault on what he sees as the evils of international big business. Five years ago it was the bogey of Genetically Modified crops.
Bove: If this goes on all over the world it is going to be the end of the family farm.
Hardaker: Typically, Jose Bove took direct action.
Bove: So the first time we went inside a factory and we found the GM crops, the corn and we mix with ordinary corn so it was impossible for the transnational corporation Novartis to use it any more because it was impossible to know which was the good one and which was the bad one.
Hardaker: For that multimillion dollar act of sabotage, Jose Bove has been convicted and faces 14 months in prison.
Hardaker: But it was the Big Mac attack of 1999 that made Jose Bove a true folk hero. Bove and a group of farmers took apart the local McDonalds, to retaliate against a World Trade Organisation decision which hurt the regions Roquefort cheese makers.
Bove: People didnt know anything about WTO and the fact that WTO was deciding what you have to eat everyday for French people and European people in general, it was terrible.
Hardaker: The WTO, genetic modification, globalisation -- symbols in a struggle for French identity. It all fits neatly into Jose Boves anti-US, anti-war message.
Hardaker: And its why this bus load of locals travels with him on an 8 hour odyssey to Paris where theyll march in the streets.
Bove: People say why does the United States want to go to Iraq. The only reason is oil and everybody sees this. Whats happening now in Iraq is just the next step for the United States to control the production of oil, so people think that this war is only a war for oil
Defarges: Its clear that in France that there is anti-Americanism root, and its very deep and why? We cannot accept to be inferior, you know. In France, the French mentality we are equal to the United States. We are equal. France, when you look at the media, when you read the French newspaper, France is equal to the United States. Is it true? I dont know.
Hardaker: As world wide demonstrations against war on Iraq got underway, in Paris, Jose Boves messages hit all the right buttons.
Gulf war veteran: Why opposed to the war? Its so that we dont make the same mistakes we made in 1990 and 1991.
Hardaker: These veterans from the first Gulf War marched with 27 replica coffins in memory of colleagues killed in that conflict.
Gulf war veteran: I am a soldier from the Gulf War and the Balkans, and I can tell you I am not the same as I once was.
Hardaker: The demonstrations gave power to the arm of the United States chief tormentor, Jacques Chirac, whod been fending off American claims of rank opportunism. Jose Bove led the Paris demonstration, his views eagerly sought by Frances national media. Whats clear that this is not only about the United States position on Iraq its about a clash of cultures.
Bove: When US refuse to recognise the international court, people dont understand. When Mr Bush refuse to go on with Kyoto negotiations, people dont understand. So people are angry against that, but they are not angry against the American people.
Defarges: Jose Bove is Asterix, you know. You cannot understand Jose Bove if you dont know this typical French or Gallic character who is Asterix.
Hardaker: What do you make of that description?
Bove: Its a joke, but for people Asterix represents resistance to oppression or resistance against the empire, Roman Empire. So maybe a lot of people understand this as resistance against globalisation globalisation is the new way of the empire.
Hardaker: But the other reading of Asterix is that he embodies traditional French values which are no longer sustainable in the world the way it is these days.
Bove: I say very often that Asterix was in his little village surrounded by the empire. We try to do the other way, that we want to surround the empire, thats the new way to make resistance. So we want a million of Asterix all over the world.
Hardaker: For the Bush administration, one Asterix is perhaps enough. President Jacques Chirac whos hijacked the European debate on the US-led war -- is another version of the same character, in the eyes of Philippe Moreau Defarges.
Defarges: Yes of course. You know there is a strong French tradition, coming from before de Gaulle and what is the idea? I am a free man. I dont speak in the name of French interest, I speak in the interest of mankind, of humanity, and facing this big power, the United States, which is our friend, but it is such a big power, I must defend, I must protect this basic right of humanity.
Hardaker: Frances distinct distaste for war continues to infuriate the United States. An old friendship is being strained to breaking point. Omaha Beach, Normandy -- where wave after wave of American servicemen were killed in 1944 as they came ashore to liberate France. If there is sacred ground for the Franco-American friendship, this is it, the American war cemetery at Colville sur Mer -- over nine thousand crosses bear testimony to the loss of American life.
Here, charges of ingratitude and cowardice have alienated even the United States best friends.
Vanura: Ooooh I was as sad as I was angry. But thats politics.
Hardaker: Marianne Heldin Vanura continues to honour the dead. Shes one of a number of French people who have close ties with the families of the US servicemen who died here.
She and many others were devastated by this front page attack from the New York Post.
Vanura: Its really immoral, its really, really horrible to do that. Its the lack of respect. Its the biggest show of disrespect to a person who has died, to use their grave without consent for such an inappropriate subject.
Hardaker: Despite the bonds made in blood, this friend of America in this small village believes the United States must get United Nation backing before it invades Iraq. Jose Bove is no supporter of Saddam Hussein but he sees no reason for war on Iraq.
Bove: European people, French people live near the Mediterranean sea. We live very clear near the Arabian people and we know that if this war goes on this is going to destroy all whats happening in this area.
Hardaker: Whether or nor France backs a US-led attack, Jose Bove is a winner he gets to keep his moral rectitude.Every day France remembers the cost of war. Now the country is gambling that its opposition to war will pay off by strengthening its hand in the Middle East and in Europe. For the moment at least, that seems a good bet.