Europhiles have launched a "Stop Blair" campaign to block any hopes the former Prime Minister has of becoming European Union President later this year.
Internet campaigners, based in France, went live with the www.stopblair.eu website in a bid to collect one million signatures opposing Tony Blair’s candidature for Europe’s top job. Jérôme Guillet, a Paris based investment banker, explained that the idea for the campaign emerged "spontaneously and unanimously" from the pro-EU online bloggers community European Tribune. Many people signing the petition - translated into nine languages and which collected hundreds of signatories within hours of going live on Tuesday - attack Mr Blair for supporting the US-led war against Iraq. "In order to lead his country into war, Mr Blair made systematic use of fabricated evidence and the manipulation of information," states the petition. "His role in the Iraq war would weigh heavily on the image of the Union in the world, should he in fact be named its president." <Mr Blair is also criticised in the petition for failing to bring Britain into the euro and keeping the UK out of the EU's Schengen border-free travel zone. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has been Mr Blair's only prominent supporter for EU president, a post created under the new Reform Treaty currently being debated in the House of Commons. Mr Blair has signalled that he is interested in the job but campaigning is not expected to begin until the summer, after a June summit of EU leaders agree a job description. Mr Sarkozy has also nominated Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, a man, who unlike Mr Blair, is one of the EU’s last avowedly European Federalist leaders. Brussels diplomats and officials suggest that it is likely that neither Mr Blair or Mr Juncker are really serious contenders for the job, to be decided at a special Brussels summit in October. "They both cancel each other out. The Europhiles will oppose Blair and back Juncker. The Euro-realists will back Blair and oppose Juncker allowing another consensus candidate to emerge," said one. Gordon Brown's explicit backing for Mr Blair is generally seen as the pre-condition for a serious campaign. "If Britain's Prime Minister does not support Mr Blair then Angela Merkel will not. If the German Chancellor does not back him then Mr Blair can not win," said one EU diplomat. "We will only know that Mr Blair is a serious candidate when Mr Brown gives clear support." The Prime Minister, while saying Mr Blair would make an "excellent" EU president, has conspicuously failed to back his predecessor's candidature.
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Zionist Mossad Nicolas Sarkozy has been Tony Blair's only prominent supporter for EU president
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