France: Laurent Fabius was France's youngest prime minister and Jacques Chirac was only mayor of Paris when they clashed in a television debate 20 years ago.
Mr Fabius treated Mr Chirac like an inconsequential upstart, interrupting him and chiding, "Calm down, Monsieur Chirac, calm down." Mr Chirac finally exploded, telling Mr Fabius: "Be polite. Stop interrupting me all the time, like a yapping little dog."
Mr Fabius made the famous, suicidal riposte that has come back to haunt him during the campaign for the European constitutional treaty referendum: "Listen, if you please," he lectured Chirac. "You are talking to the Prime Minister of France!"
The incident established the reputation of Mr Fabius for arrogance. By staking his political career on a No vote next Sunday, he has become the "Darth Vader" of the referendum campaign, the hate figure upon whom the frustrations of the Yes camp focus.
In a highly unusual step, Claudie Haigneré, the Minister for European Affairs, wrote an article in Le Monde dated today entitled "Laurent Fabius, the illusionist". Ms Haigneré attacked Mr Fabius for perpetrating the myth that France can renegotiate the treaty. "This story of a 'plan B' is but another way of tricking the French, of maintaining them in the harmful illusion that Europe revolves around France like the earth around the sun," she wrote.
Ms Haigneré also criticised Mr Fabius for demanding that Part III of the constitution, a summary of previous treaties, be withdrawn. One improvement is that Part III requires the EU to take account of social objectives in all its policies, she noted.
Furthermore, when the treaty was drafted, acolytes of Mr Fabius insisted that Part III be retained. Mr Fabius argues the constitution will be "frozen in stone" because it can be changed only by unanimous vote.
This protects France, Haigneré noted: if a majority vote could change the treaty, France's pet provisions, including the "cultural exception" would be wiped away. Debunking the arguments of Mr Fabius has become a full-time occupation for the Yes camp.
When another former socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, eternal rival of Mr Fabius, spoke in Nantes on May 19th, he lambasted Mr Fabius for portraying east European workers as a threat. It was against the tradition of socialist internationalism, "not in our culture", Mr Jospin said.
The political scientist and former socialist MEP Olivier Duhamel speaks of the "Le Pen-isation" of Mr Fabius. Fear-mongering over east Europeans is a subliminal way for Mr Fabius to court potential right-wing and extreme right-wing voters, critics say.
The third demand of Mr Fabius is that "enhanced co-operation" (among some but not all EU members) be facilitated by the constitution. (The Schengen agreement on free movement across borders and the single currency are examples of enhanced co-operation.) Though the treaty makes such projects easier, Mr Fabius wants the minimum threshold set at six states rather than one third of all members.
But is it really worth provoking a major crisis over these "three trifles"? Jospin asked. "Either Europe needs drastic changes, in which case (Mr Fabius's) three rubber patches won't do, or these outrageous statements are false, and one should vote Yes."
The self-styled role of Mr Fabius as the scourge of economic liberalism in the EU is surprising when one considers his record as a former finance minister. In 1999, Mr Fabius told Le Monde he feared the left could lose the 2002 elections if it failed to reduce taxes and social charges. He announced a record-breaking €16.7 billion in tax cuts, which benefited the wealthy.
In June 2001, he dissented on the socialist government's law on social modernisation, saying it contradicted "the necessities of a modern economy which in the interest of employees must be fast, reactive and competitive".
Now Mr Fabius has told the communist newspaper L'Humanité that "the choice is clearly between social Europe and a liberal Europe". Mr Fabius has won the support of France's fringe left. The anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové appeared with him in Rouen on May 16th, saying that one must not "freeze people in what they once were . . . Everyone can change."
One critic asked whether we'd soon see Mr Fabius ripping genetically modified corn from the ground and sacking McDonalds restaurants, actions for which Mr Bové has been jailed.
The anti-globalisation movement Attac and the Communist Revolutionary League praise Mr Fabius. Only Arlette Laguiller, the Trotstkyist pasionaria, has shunned him, saying, "Monsieur Fabius has not become a friend of the workers".
As Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit sees it, "Fabius's strategy is to make it to the run-off in the 2007 presidential election. He thinks, 'Even if (leftists who support the treaty) hate me, they'll vote for me over (the centre-right UMP leader Nicolas) Sarkozy.' That was exactly Mitterrand's strategy against Giscard in 1981."
If the No wins, Mr Fabius hopes to take over the Socialist Party. But the party's leader, Francois Hollande, has made it clear he and other pro-treaty socialists will hang on.
