Mickey overcomes French resistance

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 25

Mickey overcomes French resistance

By

ROBIN SMYTH,

in Paris

Driving through the flat, ploughed fields of Marne-la-Vallee, 40 kilometres from Paris, the motorist comes on a strange road sign. It shows an angry red cross superimposed on the widely-loved face of Mickey Mouse. Hiding out in these villages and farms there are still rebels against the mighty mouse who is about to transform these wet, ploughed fields into the first European Disneyland amusement park. Like the scalded cats of the Walt Disney Cartoons, Mickey’s enemies never had a chance.

Jacques Chirac, the conserva-

tive Prime Minister, who signed the contract with the top brass of the Walt Disney company last month, has the support of the Socialists who started the tortuous negotiations for the park two years ago, and, according to polls, more than 80 per cent of the French population.

The custodians of the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cult have made an offer that no French Government could refuse. When the first phase of the construction is completed

and the European Disneyland opens its gates in 1992, an estimated 10 million visitors a year and jobs for at least 30,000 people will result. Its 1700 hectares will make it as large as one-fifth of Paris. It will have as many hotel rooms — 13,500 — as are to be found in all the capital’s three star hotels. A country fighting unemployment rising to 3 million cannot turn down Mickey Mouse on these terms. The resistance comes from local villagers and

farmers who protest they are losing acres of first-class farmland for what they consider poor compensation.

“I don’t think there will be anything like 30,000 jobs,” said one of the local Marne resistance leaders. “We don’t have a Californian climate here. It’s going to be temporary, seasonal work.”

The Communists, who are against all things American, are predictably hostile to Disneyland. So is the extreme Rightwing National Front Scattered defenders of the French language and cultural heritage

against Anglo-Saxon incursions ' have fought a rearguard action against the project.

The Disney company had yielded to France’s insistence that visitors to the American “magic kingdom” must eat food supplied by French caterers and farmers. They must also hear enough French spoken by the cartoon characters to know what country they were in.

The three other existing Disney parks are in California, Florida, and Tokyo. Copyright London Observer Service.