France: A small square beside the French National Assembly was transformed into Beirut-on-the-Seine late yesterday when close to 2,000 demonstrators waved the same photographs of the murdered former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, and the same Lebanese flags and placards demanding the departure of Syrian troops as their compatriots had done in Beirut's Martyrs' Square.
But for the dozens of French deputies who walked across the street to join the demonstration this was also a domestic political opportunity.
In a rare show of unanimity, the leaders of all the main political parties tried to outdo each other with rousing speeches. The deputies wore blue, white and red tricolour sashes, while the Lebanese wore red and white scarves like the anti-Syrian opposition in Beirut.
This Franco-Lebanese love-fest was transformed, thanks to giant television screens, into a live communion between the Place Président Edouard Herriot and the Place des Martyres. If there were ever harsh feelings between Lebanon and the "Mère-patrie" who carved the État du Grand Liban out of Ottoman Syria in 1920, all was forgotten.
In a neo-colonialist vein, the green deputy Noel Mamère said: "We have a duty to the Lebanese people, whom we have too often and too long abandoned." The slogans "Free Lebanon", "Syrial Killer", "Syrians in Syria; Lebanese in Lebanon" and "Who killed Rafik Hariri?" sped across the grey wall of the National Assembly in green light.
"Assad assassin. Assad assassin," the crowd repeated, expressing their belief that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, had ordered the killing of Mr Hariri.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the pro-American head of the centre-right UMP, who wants to succeed President Jacques Chirac, was greeted with wild cheers. The pint-sized politician could barely be seen on the podium, but he delivered his Bush-like address in a booming voice. "In 2005, all countries in the world have the same right to live in freedom and independence," he said.
"We demand a free Lebanon immediately. That means all occupation forces must leave, and the Lebanese must be allowed to choose their leaders freely through elections."
Pierre Goldberg, the head of the communist group in the National Assembly, had the coldest reception. Syria was long allied with the former Soviet Union. Several deputies said that all UN Security Council resolutions - not just 1559, which requires the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon - must be implemented.
But Mr Goldberg was booed when he said: "If UN resolutions are enforced in Lebanon, they must be enforced in Palestine, too." The Paris demonstrators were mostly Maronite Christians, and they fought the PLO in Lebanon's civil war.
A well-dressed Lebanese who watched from the sidelines turned out to be Hratch Sisserian, the private secretary to the late Mr Hariri.
"Unfortunately, none of this can bring back Mr Hariri," he said. "What he worked for when he was alive will be accomplished by his death. But my joy at Lebanon's liberation can never make up for my grief."
The socialist party leader, François Hollande, boasted that he had just returned from Beirut, where he had met his fellow socialist, the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and watched preparations for the biggest demonstration in the history of Lebanon.
A journalist asked Mr Hollande if France was not meddling in Lebanon's internal affairs. "When there is such a human mass demanding freedom and independence, you cannot stop the people," Mr Hollande said.