'A New McCarthyism'

THE Indians, the French and the Italians seem to understand Bill Clinton. President Mitterand had a lover and an illegitimate daughter by her who all of France knew about but didn't care. Today, the French look at Clinton and mind that anyone minds. Italy has had too many prime ministers perhaps for their sex lives to be noticed. But as an Italian businessmen said on television, if this sort of thing began to shock Italy, "our parliament would be empty".

Across Europe, the Clinton story looks less and less about Clinton than about the people talking about him; the Starr report is the world's test case for everyone's stand on sexual morality. Much of Britain took the puritanical and disapproving line. Not so the French. "Hell is American," Le Monde declared, and the hunt for the presidency "a new McCarthyism". The Le Monde editor said "we think that a president who has affairs is charming".

The international director of France Television, Jean Loup Demignieux, seemed to speak for most people in an appearance on TV: "We always like to know who is with who, but we don't think it is in any way related to his job and public life." Several public opinion polls backed that view overwhelmingly.

In Italy, women more than men backed Clinton, polls showed. In one where 500 Italians were interviewed, 90 per cent of the women and 86 per cent of the men said Clinton should stay. Another poll asked 2,000 Italians if they would mind their prime minister Romano Prodi having an affair with a young trainee. Two-thirds said they wouldn't. Of the rest, half said they would disapprove and half offered no opinion; it did not seem a question worth thinking about.

The Starr report was being seen as doing dirt to romance. Disgust was expressed everywhere over the details. The French seemed angry not with Clinton or Monica Lewinsky but with America for allowing such a story to take over. The best newspapers of America, Le Figaro wrote, have turned into "gutter press" and that "America owes its paralysis to a sort of conspiracy of mediocre minds." L'Humanitie wrote: "Washington, Lincoln, wake up. They've all gone crazy." But many in Britain were glued in to the Clinton story. Britain has the highest divorce rate in Europe, the largest number of single mothers, but the puritanical voice was strongest in Britain. Tabloids that publish nude pictures every day took the staunchly conservative view. The Sun called Clinton "sleazy" and pronounced him "Guilty as Sin." The Express tabloid wrote a story on Hillary Clinton under the heading: "I'm with you all the way—you vile creep." The Daily Telegraph didn't think Clinton was sorry—"saying sorry is another version of lying."

If anyone, prime minister Tony Blair has been what the puritans would call un-British about it. His spokesman announced that Blair does not "dump people because some report appears on the Internet". That set off another confrontation with that Conservative leader William Hague who attacked Blair for speaking at all. "If we had a great crisis going on in the British government, we wouldn't thank American Congressmen for commenting on it, so I think we should bear that in mind," said Hague.

In Germany, much of the concern was over the consequences of the crisis; its causes seemed unmentionable. Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in an interview that through the crisis Clinton "must retain his ability to govern". The only world power, he said, has work to do. "Asia, Africa, India—everywhere there are problems." The French too sounded concerned about the consequences. "The president will perhaps survive but the presidency is on its knees," Le Figaro wrote. To many this is now a political story.

Polls across Europe showed that most Europeans, barring the British, seemed to want Clinton to stay on. Through all the reactions on Clinton, it seemed remarkable how little of a joke the story was. There was almost no attempt at sleazy humour, in most of Europe. Perhaps you don't joke about some things you don't talk about. And no, you don't get rid of a president for this.