Margaret Thatcher’s reputation as handbag-wielding defender of Britain’s interests in Europe has been challenged by a former French diplomat, who claims that at the moment of her supposed greatest triumph she was a pitiful and tearful figure.
Jacques Attali, who had a ringside seat at the famous Fontainebleau summit 25 years ago, claims Mrs Thatcher broke down in tears as she tried to secure a British refund from its contributions to the European Union budget.
Mrs Thatcher’s supposed “handbagging” of other European leaders – including President François Mitterrand of France – has entered Eurosceptic folklore as the benchmark for unyielding British negotiations at EU summits.
Mr Attali tells the BBC on Saturday that European leaders agreed to give back two-thirds of net UK budget contributions because they felt sorry for the “Iron Lady”.
“She ended up crying – crying in the middle of the meeting,” Mr Attali tells the BBC’s Record Europe, in a programme marking the 25th anniversary of the tough negotiations.
“Mitterrand told me: ‘She’s broken like a piece of glass’. And she actually was. I was surprised to see that, she was really broken when she accepted the final deal.”
Mr Attali was President Mitterrand’s adviser during the French presidency of the EU in 1984 and claims Fontainebleau should be remembered instead for paving the way for the euro and the completion of the single market. “It was an embarrassing begging for a tip,” he says of Mrs Thatcher’s rebate demand. “In the end we gave her half of the tip that she was requesting and we went on to more serious issues.”
Mr Attali’s account of the summit does not tally with those of British witnesses, who said Mrs Thatcher fought hard to get a 66 per cent rebate on UK contributions to the budget, worth hundreds of millions of pounds at the time.
The Fontainebleau summit marked the culmination of a five-year campaign by the British prime minister, who explained in 1979: “It is asking the community to have our own money back.”
Mr Attali’s comments may be seen in some quarters as ungallant towards Lady Thatcher, now a frail 84-year-old.
Lady Thatcher’s office said: “Rarely did Lady Thatcher ever need anyone to feel sorry for her. Usually people felt very sorry for her opponents.”
