New York Times September 15, 1999
Protesters Just Say No to 'McDo'; Jospin Glad By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
PARIS -- When it comes to showing France's refusal to roll over to U.S.-led globalization of the world economy, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin bows to almost no man.
But he did Monday night on national television, when he was asked about protests at 40 McDonald's restaurants around the country this summer against extra U.S. tariff duties on Roquefort, foie gras and other French products imposed because France refuses to import U.S. hormone-treated beef.
Jospin took off his hat to the leader of the protests, a French farmers' union official named Jose Bove, who spent about two weeks under arrest after a demonstration in Auch on July 27 wrecked a McDonald's building site.
"We are still a people of Gallic origins," Jospin said, bringing to mind visions of Asterix and Obelix, the popular cartoon Gauls, underdogs who use their fists, and magic potions, and always get the best of all the Roman legions that Caesar can throw against them.
"Whenever there are movements, there are personalities that emerge," said Jospin, recalling a truck driver lionized as "Tarzan" during an epic truckers' strike in 1992 and a spokesman for the jobless known as "Robin Hood," who caught the country's sympathy for their plight in 1997.
"Here again is a strong, vigorous personality, who stems a bit from our people, with the radicalism that has always existed," Jospin told his interviewer.
"I am personally not very pro-McDo," Jospin said, using the familiar diminutive for the fast-food chain, pronouncing it "Mac-doh" the way millions of French customers do. After pointing out earlier that its ubiquitous branches buy mostly French beef and potatoes and provide income for tens of thousands of French farmers, McDonald's is now lying low under its golden arches. The chain made no comment Tuesday about the prime minister's remarks, and an official said the wave of demonstrations against its restaurants appeared to have calmed down.