Gay Conservative

You could historically count me as one of the top France-bashers around.  During the administrations of Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac, I was completely disillusioned with the cowardly, antagonistic nation that seemed bent on making itself completely irrelevant in the international community.  Under these two jokers, France’s prime directive was to assault US interests and policies at every turn.  They were not even Euro-centric.  These doofs were unabashed Francophiles who could care less about matters beyond their own borders.

Then came Nicolas Sarkozy.

He is a wet dream for Americans compared to his repugnant predecessors.  He made it clear during his campaign for the presidency that he was focused on improving ties with America.  He reflected on his time spent in the US and his admiration of the American resolve.  Upon his election, he began to translate all of that into reality.  He promptly took his first vacation in the US and took time to meet with GW in Kennebunkport.

Think that has made him a lot of friends in Europe?  Oh, hell no.  While the honeymoon with voters in France has been relatively quaint, his perception among the socialist intelligentsia across the European continent has been rocky.  I guess that would explain this article from London’s Financial Times.  I read this article as a veiled indictment of Sarkozy for his attempts to nurture a relationship with the US.  At the very least, it gives voice to the frustration felt amongst European leaders.

Since becoming France’s president in May, Mr Sarkozy has been making some of his most startling statements in the realm of foreign policy and appears to have ripped up the rhetorical handbook handed down by previous French presidents. In particular, he has appalled the clerics of France’s cult of anti-Americanism by lavishing praise on the US.

During the presidential election campaign, Mr Sarkozy was taunted by one of his Socialist opponents as “an American neocon with a French passport”. This particular critic was subsequently co-opted by Mr Sarkozy and now sits in his cabinet. But judging by Mr Sarkozy’s recent hardline speeches on Iran, the original comment does not appear too far wide of the mark. Mr Sarkozy was the first leader to talk openly of the possibility of war with Iran and is now pressing for tougher sanctions.

Mr Sarkozy appears to have an instinctive admiration for the dynamism and mobility of US society. As the son of a Hungarian immigrant who has risen to the highest office in the land, Mr Sarkozy has been living the American dream in France. But Mr Sarkozy’s rapprochement with Washington probably also springs from hard-headed calculation: the need to count in Washington if he is to matter in the rest of the world. As one European diplomat says: “Sarkozy is someone who wants to make things happen. He is a doer, a deal-maker and a pragmatist. But that means he has to get on with the big boys rather than messing around with a lot of grand – and ultimately meaningless – rhetoric.”

The subtle commentary underlying this article is that Sarkozy is a self-absorbed politician who has befriended America in order to further his own interests.

As Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a European parliamentarian, recently told French radio: “The Sarkozy style is very French, very king of France, emperor of France. It is I who does everything, it is I who thinks everything, who is everything. It is me, me, me at the European level and that irritates people because it’s not true.”

I suppose President Sarkozy’s choice to engage the US as a friend brings with it serious risk.  The European elite will continue to paint this as basically American ass-kissing.  I view it as a good first step at repairing the damage done by successive French administrations who were more interested in themselves than developing meaningful relationships.  The previous French regimes were dedicated to furthering their own narcissistic agendas rather than making a true difference in the international community.

Nicolas Sarkozy will not always see eye-to-eye with the US.  There will be significant points of disagreement.  But at least we have, in Sarkozy, a partner we can deal with in a positive way.  Europe can moan and wail as loudly as it wants, but as long as Sarkozy is in office, you can bet that France will be a more meaningful player on the world stage.