How the Danes see it

last updated 8 January 2015

Copenhagen

French and German diplomats are grumbling over a Danish documentary about the inner workings of the European Union, charging that it deliberately makes French and German leaders look obnoxious and foolish. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a good-looking and telegenic man, allowed a TV crew to follow him around last year during the final weeks that he held the rotating E.U. presidency. Rasmussen comes across in the film as intelligent and smooth. But French President Jacques Chirac is captured insisting that no work proceed until everything is translated into French, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is shown announcing a deal prematurely and then getting all the facts wrong.