The head of state’s focus on Britain would normally have seemed out of place in his traditional Bastille Day television interview, but this year M Chirac could not avoid France’s theme of the season as he grapples with record unpopularity. London’s victory in the race for the 2012 Olympics was the final straw in what France sees as a period of British superiority in the ancestral Anglo-French duel.

After leading the silence for the London bombings at an Élysée Palace garden party, M Chirac was asked about France’s losing streak and what is seen as Britain’s triumphant prosperity under Tony Blair.

He said: “I have a lot of esteem for the British people and for Tony Blair. But I do not think the British model is one that we should envy.

“Certainly, their unemployment is lower than ours. But if you take the big elements in society — health policy, the fight against poverty, . . . spending involving the future — you notice that we are much, much better placed than the English.”

M Chirac said that France spent 5.6 per cent of its annual income on education, compared with Britain’s 4.2 per cent. Later, citing Britain unprompted, he noted that 7 per cent of French children lived in poverty compared with 17 per cent in Britain.

He also insisted that he would “not make the least concession” to Mr Blair in his campaign to reform EU farm spending and would fight his attempts to open Europe’s service market to competition. Although polls show that M Chirac, 72, is trusted by only 25 per cent of the public, he refused to rule out running for a third term in 2007.

The President’s chief goal in his 45-minute state-of-the- nation chat was to persuade a dubious French public that he has the ability to respond to an economic crisis that is fuelled by a decade of 10 per cent unemployment. But France remembers that in his first Bastille Day appearance in 1995 he promised a “great campaign to curb unemployment”.

The Socialist Opposition said that he appeared “laborious, self-contradictory and on the defensive” during his broadcast. The Greens said that the President had shown himself “completely out of touch with the discontent of the French people”.

M Chirac’s biggest needling is coming from within his own camp, in the person of Nicolas Sarkozy, the cabinet minister and leader of the President’s UMP party who is campaigning to take the Élysée Palace in 2007.

M Sarkozy, 50, is using Britain as a weapon. He said: “Who would have thought that in 30 years, Great Britain would become a leading light in the world ? They have modernised the country, fundamentally revised their values, abandoned taboos and achieved a great ambition.”

M Sarkozy infuriated M Chirac by dismissing his “policies of 50 years ago” and saying that there was no point in his Bastille Day show since he had nothing new to say. Such insubordination underlined M Chirac’s declining authority as he sought to explain his latest recipe for cutting unemployment yesterday.

France’s rejection of the European constitution was not a humiliation but an opportunity to renew the French model, he said. France would retain the “genius” of its welfare state, he said, but would in future focus on encouraging people to take jobs rather than assisting the unemployed.

The line was an attempt to reinforce a timid drive by Dominique de Villepin, his Prime Minister, to adopt a more British approach to opening the job market.

However, M Chirac faces a big obstacle in articulating the need for change. Opinion polls show that a majority of the nation craves more protection and job guarantees, as desired by the Socialist Party and the hard Left, and not the supposed social breakdown that afflicts Britain.

HOW THE NEIGHBOURING ECONOMIES MEASURE UP

FRANCE

Population: 60.95m
GDP: £1.02 trillion
Gross national income (per capita): £14,107
Average GDP growth, 1993-2003: 2.3%
GDP growth in 2003: 0%
Foreign direct investment: £27.2bn
Inflation: 2.1%
Total exports: £2.18bn
Unemployment: 9.7%
Population in poverty: 7%
State spending on schools per person in 2001: £3,863
State spending on healthcare per person: £1,653

BRITAIN

Population: 60.44m
GDP: £1.02 trillion
Gross national income (per capita): £16,146
Average GDP growth, 1993-2003: 2%
GDP growth in 2003: 2%
Foreign direct investment: £11.8bn
Inflation: 2.9%
Total exports: £1.72bn
Unemployment: 4.8%
Population in poverty: 17%
State spending on schools per person in 2001: £3,032
State spending on healthcare per person: £1,270

Sources: World Bank; CIA World Factbook; OECD (education, poverty, unemployment and health spending)

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