Charles Bremner - Times Online - WBLG

At home with Bernard Kouchner, Sarkozy's musketeer

When Napoleon III built the great mansion on the Quai d'Orsay, the idea was to impress foreign dignitaries with the majesty of his empire. A century and a half later, the home of the French Foreign Ministry still oozes grandeur.

They usher you down an endless gallery with portraits of past statesmen.  Everything is outsize, from the gilt-encrusted moldings to the huge chandeliers.  When you enter the Rotunda, the  minister's magnificent office, the reaction is supposed to be awe. The place is vast, big enough for a couple of Oval Offices, bigger than President Sarkozy's office at the Elysée Palace.  In this chamber,  the dashing Bernard Kouchner cuts a slight figure as he greets you, tie-less and in shirt sleeves. 

But what Kouchner lacks in stature  -- he is about the same diminutive height as Sarkozy --  he makes up with  energy and passion for a job that is one of the toughest in Sarko's government.  A veteran rights campaigner, showman and one of France's most popular political figures, Kouchner is foreign minister for a president who likes to do the job himself and does not share the stage.

Kouchner, 68, was typically forthright about the problems of working for Sarko when he led me and four European colleagues into the sumptuous garden for a chat about the revolution that he and Sarko have wrought in French foreign policy (This was last weekend, before the holiday).

A video word from The Times in Paris

This is one of the big weekend for leaving town, so I'm joining the southward exodus. July14 is past and Paris Plage is opening along the Seine at the start of the week. The Tour de France is winding into its final week, blighted by the traditional doping scandal but still loved nevertheless (my story in today's paper). President Sarkozy is working for a few days more. He's off on Monday to twist the arms of the Irish over the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. On that subject, I just had a fascinating hour with Bernard Kouchner, Sarko's flamboyant foreign minister. I'll post on him in a day or two.

I've said the rest in this short video (click here if it's not working). It was done with my pocket camera, an extraordinarily simple thing called a Flip. That explains the grainy image. I'll upgrade the technology soon. Posting will be intermittent over the next couple of weeks, especially since we still do not have broadband internet in the Cévennes hills -- or mobile phone cover. That's a help and a hindrance. It means that you cut off more from the outside world since it takes about a minute to load every web page via the phone modem. But it's a drag when you do want to search for something or read mail. But I shall be putting through comments a couple of times a day, so please keep them coming.

Sarkozy, his father and beautiful women

 

President Sarkozy appears in this painting with his Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour hanging from his ear. It might appear too irreverent and garish to grace the Elysée Palace. But Sarko has it on the wall because it was painted by his dad.

Pal Sarkozy de Nagy Bocsa, a Hungarian aristocrat who arrived in Paris without a penny in 1948, offered it to his son after his election last year. The picture, along with others that have been on show in Madrid this month, tells you a little about the socialite father who was absent for much of Sarko's childhood. 

Sarko's consuming ambition is often put down to his unhappiness after Pal [pictured below] left Andrée Mallah and their three boys when Nicolas was three. Mrs Sarkozy qualified as a lawyer to earn her sons' keep in the absence of much help from the father. The President, 53, once recalled suffering in his childhood but said: "The need to fight for ourselves, which all three of us had to, proved to be a powerful boost in the end."

Sarko senior, an elegant charmer, pursued a successful career in advertising doing campaigns for Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden and others. He re-built a relationship with his sons when Nicolas was in his 20s and an apprentice politician. 

Nicolas' elevation has boosted to his father's late-blooming career as an artist. He has been selling his work quietly for years but he has just enjoyed wide publicity for his show of surrealist painting and computer-aided montage, produced jointly with Werner Hornung, a German artist and advertising colleague. After Madrid, the collection, full of erotic images of women, is due to open in Paris later this year, possibly at the Espace Cardin, behind the Elysée.

France studies philosophy and sex on the beach

Our nearest bookshop, on the Boulevard des Italiens, is doing roaring trade at the moment with everyone stocking up for the summer holidays. This year, there's a splashy new category of best-seller -- the phenomenon known as cahiers de vacances, or holiday revision guides

The idea is that, instead of wasting your beach time with Steven King or Marc Lévy (French pop novelist of the moment), you use it to bone up on Nietzsche, quadratic equations, molecular science or some other discipline.

The craze took off last year after the Chiflet publishing house produced a playful grown-up version of the revision manuals that French parents have long inflicted on their children during the very long summer holidays. The children's cahiers, of which over three million a year are sold, are supposed to keep their minds in gear for the new school year. Chiflet's Cahier de vacances pour adultes, was a runaway success, selling 150,000 copies last summer.

Almost everyone has climbed onto the cahier wagon this time, with at least 18 variations on the idea in bookstores, news stands and supermarkets. You can hone your skills in mathematics, history and even test your ability to pass the baccalauréat or brevet school exams. The CNRS, the state research body, has cashed in on the current popularity of philosophy to market an 88-page manual to get you back to speed on Hobbes, Spinoza, epicureans and so on.  Le Cahier de Vacances Philo says that time on the beach or the campsite "is favourable to a return to the inner self and thought". That's Nietszche in the swimsuit in the picture.

At the other end of the spectrum is an erotic version.  "The craze for cahiers de vacances for adults neglected a subject that is one of the main activities on vacation: sex," said Musardine, the publishers. The cahier's 48 pages, costing 9.90 euros, are full of supposedly amusing items of sexual lore, texts and tests. These include such things as a glossary of sexual slang and questions on the sexual "characteristics" of King Edward VII, Attila the Hun and Georges Simenon, creator of Inspector Maigret (Answer: Edward liked making love in a bath of champagne, Attila died on his wedding night and Simenon went regularly to prostitutes for inspiration).

Le Monde analysed the cahier boom the other day, saying that it benefited from two current fashions. One was the "regressive" craze for adult versions of children's pastimes. The biggest example is the "Cahier de gribouillages", a book for scribbling and doodling that became a hit with bored office workers. There is now even a Sarkozy scribbling book on the market. The other trend is the worldwide fashion for brain training, memory fitness and games such as Sudoku

President Sarkozy's government has joined the act, with a free online Cahier de Vacances on the European Union. It is meant for children and teenagers rather than adults. I cannot imagine kids anywhere wanting to spend their holiday time answering questions such as "In what year did Slovenia join the European Union" or "Which of the following celebrities is not Romanian: Eugene Ionesco, Constantin Brancusi and Emir Kusturica?" (Kusturica is Serbian, but you knew that).

At Sarkozy's garden party

I have just enjoyed a glass of pink champagne with Carla Bruni and Ingrid Betancourt at the Elysée Palace. Well... I plus about 2,000 other guests at President Sarkozy's garden party for Bastille Day.  Betancourt was the star of the show, which came at the end of a spectacular two days for Sarko.

He pinned the medal of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur on Betancourt on the steps of the palace after lunching with European and Mediterranean leaders (I shot the video below with a pocket camcorder from inside the crowd. It gives you an idea).

The July 14 celebrations are always impressive, especially when the sun shines like today. No other big nation performs such a fly past and full-scale military parade any more. It's hard to avoid emotion at the sight of the jets of the Patrouille de France display team trailing their red white and blue smoke over the Arc de Triomphe (picture). Huge crowds watch the the cavalry, the Foreign Legion and other regiments proceeding down the Champs Elysées. This year, seven military parachutists landed on the Place de la Concorde, right at the feet of Sarkozy and the heads of state who were sitting around him. Silvio Berlusconi watched with envy as Sarko the Commander-in-Chief watched his forces swung by the reviewing stand.

You would not know from the precision drill, gleaming weapons and jutting jaws that the military are in a state of semi-rebellion against Sarkozy at the moment. Not for decades has a president stirred such the anger among the officer class. They never liked Sarko much to start with. He is city-slicker lawyer with none of the military background of Jacques Chirac, his predecessor. They have lately taken offence at his reform of the forces, which will close dozens of bases and cut 50,000 personnel. They were badly stung when he called them amateurs two weeks ago after an accidental multiple shooting at an army display in Carcassonne. Senior officers have even been criticising Sarkozy in the media, a very rare step by the traditions of the military.

 

Today, their biggest day of the year, he tried to calm things down, telling the armed forces: "I assure you of my friendship and I renew my trust in your ability to undertake your daily missions."

There were plenty uniforms at the Elysée garden party. It's a longstanding fixture, a real bun fight, as the British say. President Chirac used to invite up to 6,000 people. Sarkozy trimmed the list this year but you still have to shove to get to the champagne and petits fours. They mix VIPs and the high establishment with people from worthy causes along with less worthy ones like the media. This year, Bruni's first as Première Dame, she invited a few dozen of her music industry chums, but the crowd was still heavy with high functionaries, business leaders and military chiefs.  

Many of the uniforms were foreign, worn by officers from the EU and Mediterranean states whom Sarkozy invited to his grand summit on Saturday. The big day went rather well, with Sarkozy pulling off a few diplomatic coups. He got the Israelis and Syrians talking, albeit indirectly via the Turks. President Assad did not shake hands with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, but they at least sat down at the table. Sarko was visibly enjoying himself, playing host, statesman and peace-broker as the leaders of the rest of Europe took a back seat.

Sarkozy's next moment in the sun comes on July 25 when he welcomes to Paris Barak Obama, the man whom France and much of Europe has already elected next president of the United States.

[Video: The Elysée party from the inside]

France refuses citizenship over Muslim woman's dress

You remember the French marriage that was annulled a couple of months ago because the bride had falsely told her Muslim husband that she was a virgin. In that case, the judge in effect adapted the law to Muslim values. Another case has just come to light in which the courts have done the opposite, ruling  against a Muslim woman because of her religious practises.

The Council of State, the highest legal body on civil law, denied citizenship to a  young Moroccan woman who wears a full veil on the grounds that her "radical" Islam is incompatible with French values.

Faiza M., who is married to a French national, arrived in France in 2000. She speaks good French and has three children born in France but she wears a black burqa, the full-length dress which also covers the face. She adopted it at the request of her husband, a member of the strict Salafist movement.

In 2005, a court refused her citizenship because she did not comply with obligation to integrate in French society. The Council of State rejected her appeal, making the refusal final. It was the first time that citizenship has been refused on such grounds. "She has adopted a radical practise of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes," the Council said.

Listening to comment over the past 24 hours, it is clear that the decision enjoys public support. France is worried about Islamic practises that conflict with women's rights and the state takes seriously the doctrine of laicité, the religious neutrality or secularism that underpins the republic.  The ban on girls wearing Islamic head-cover in schools is part of that and it has strong public support.

Jack Lang, one of the dinosaur stars of the Socialist party, was on the radio this morning approving of the decision against Faiza M. "Wearing the burqa amounts to defiance of women's right to equality," he said. "Wearing this, she is little more than the slave of her husband."

But Lang admitted that there might be faulty logic in punishing Faiza M for excessive submission to her husband.  Danièle Lochak, a law professor, extended this thinking in le Monde, which broke the story of Faiza M. "If you follow that to its logical conclusion, it means that women whose partners beat them are also not worthy of being French," she said.

The ruling was delivered by Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave, a government commissioner who specialises in the citizenship law. She wrote that Faiza M had presented herself for interviews "attired from head to toe in the clothing of women from the Arabian peninsula, with a veil covering her hair, forehead and chin and a piece of cloth over her face. Her eyes could only be seen through a small slit. She lives virtually as a recluse, disconnected from French society. She has no concept of laïcite nor the right to vote. She lives in total subservience to the men in her family."

France is stricter than other European states over requiring immigrants to integrate with national practises to qualify for citizenship, but other countries are catching up. Germany is about to join Britain in imposing a test of applicants' knowledge of national institutions and traditions. But there are no conditions anywhere else covering dress. 

Sarkozy launches his new Club Med

This weekend sees a big test of Nicolas Sarkozy's ambition to become a world statesman. On Sunday, he presides over a summit of 44 nations, whose leaders he has summoned to Paris to launch a grand scheme for a new Mediterranean Union.

The gathering may be remembered as the start of something new, an idea whose time has come. But the more common view is that Sarkozy's "Club Med" is an example of his tendency to improvise showy initiatives that he fails to follow through.

For those who live in France, we are in for two days of glittering ceremony at the vast Grand Palais in the heart of Paris, followed by the attendance of all the leaders at the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysées on Monday.

Among them will be Bashir al Assad of Syria and Ehud Olmert the Israeli Prime Minister. Bringing those two to the same place is already a feat, say Sarko's people. Only Muammar Gaddafi of Libya has rejected the Paris invitation, calling it an insult. That was not very kind, given the lavish hostpitality that Sarkozy offered him in Paris last winter.   

The summit, staged in a palace that was built in 1900 to display France's imperial glory, springs from a noble idea.

Carla Bruni's new album and the love song for Sarko

Here's your chance to listen to the new musical oeuvre from Carla Bruni. In a marketing build-up worthy of Madonna or a Stones release, Mrs Sarkozy's record company has put Comme si de rien n'était (As if nothing happened) on the internet for free listening.

This must be the first time that the presidency of a leading nation has promoted a pop album. The Elysée Palace has been working closely with Naive records to maximise the launch of breathy love songs by the first lady. The repercussions have even gone as far as Japan, which was miffed by Bruni's decision not to join the other spouses at this week's G8 summit. She decided to stay in Paris to advance the release date. Today, she was on France-Inter radio doing the first of a series of promotional interviews which culminate with a long live session on TF1 television news -- the most watched show -- on Friday evening.

We've touched on the songs here already. They include Ma Came (My junk), the now famous drug song which caused an official complaint from the Bogota government last month. Bruni sings of an amorous high with the effects of Colombian cocaine. Most of the songs were written before her romance with Sarkozy last winter but one song, Ta Tienne (Yours) is a declaration of passion for the president, whom she calls her "orgy" and her "prince charming".

Here are some of it's lyrics:

Paris reinvents the royal past

Is Paris doing a las Vegas on itself ? Some historians and architectural purists are making the comparison as the Château de Versailles inaugurates a dazzling new golden gate, based on the long-forgotten entrance of King Louis XIV.

Much more ambitious and controversial is a scheme now gathering steam to rebuild from scratch the Tuileries palace, the great royal residence that fronted the Louvre and was burnt down in the Commune revolt of 1871.

The critics are crying vandalism. They are accusing philistines of trying to turn Paris into Disneyland or a version of the Nevada gambling capital with its mock-ups of world monuments. The phenomenon has arisen since corporate sponsors became willing to throw millions into France's star heritage projects.

The immediate fuss is over Versailles' grand gate and railings. The original, built by the Sun King in the 1680s, was torn down by the mob that came hunting for King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in October 1789.

The palace, which has been refurbishing itself at frantic speed, built a copy of the old gate in all its splendour, thanks to five million euros of corporate donations.  Over 100,000 sheets of gold leaf and 15 tonnes of iron were used by craftsmen to create a copy of the original gate, built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the original Versailles architect. It is emblazoned with the royal fleur-de-lys, crowns, masks of Apollo, cornucopias and the crossed capital Ls, the symbol of the Sun King.

The trouble is that it is only a modern rendering, with anachronistic methods, of a gate that existed only in engravings. On top of that, it links two massive buildings that were built two centuries after the Sun King, by King Louis-Philippe..

Why France is nuts over Ingrid

It's impossible not to come back to Ingrid Betancourt. She, or at least her promotion by the media and political world, have obliterated all other topics in France for the past three days.

What is going on when a country seems to lose its sense of reality and throws itself into an act of communion from which it is impossible to dissent?

First, I don't want to be superior. Every country succumbs to bouts of hysteria. Britain goes irrational usually with bad news, such as the death of Princess Diana or the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann.

Intolerance of dissent is always a symptom. In this case, look at the way that Saint Ségolène Royal has brought down the wrath of the whole political establishment. Her offence was merely to note the obvious: Nicolas Sarkozy is cashing in mercilessly on Betancourt's release by the Colombian armed forces.

The President is in heaven basking in Betancourt's glory. On hearing of her unexpected release, he rushed from Carla Bruni's house to the Elysée Palace and called Betancourt's children to his side for a national TV address. In his welcoming remarks at the airport, Sarkozy had the cheek to compare Betancourt to the Bulgarian nurses whose release from Libya last summer was one of his first self-promoting feats.

His message with Betancourt at his side was: "If someone takes you hostage, call for Super Sarko." Betancourt, a very smooth operator despite six years and four months in captivity, then laid it on with a trowel, thanking him for saving her life. In Bogota, she had first thanked God. President Uribe interrupted her and added "God and the Columbian armed forces."

I'll answer the question from PaulAngers on the last thread (was that "gentlemanly" double-edged, Paul?). He asked whether the Betancourt frenzy is propaganda and "when must we switch off French television to preserve our sanity?"

I'd suggest that you keep the TV switched off at least until tomorrow, Paul, when Ingridmania will start subsiding. But the tidal wave of celebration is not propaganda.

The Betancourt release: Did France help or hinder ?

France is exulting in rare collective joy today. They cheered in cafes and bars last night when television interrupted programmes to bring the news that Ingrid Betancourt was free. France's most celebrated hostage has been released -- along with 14 others -- after more than six years in the Colombian jungle.

President Sarkozy dropped everything to make a live late-night TV appearance with her children and he dispatched them with his foreign minister in a government plane to Bogota. They are bringing her to France tomorrow. 

It's wonderful that Betancourt, 46, a brave woman, has been extracted by Colombian forces from the hands of the FARC guerrilla army which subjected her to an unimaginable ordeal. But it's worth a glance at failings in the French handling of the affair of the Colombian politician with dual nationality.

In a rare note of criticism, Le Figaro, the most pro-government newspaper, said today there had been an unhealthy mixture of private and public interest in the conduct of her case. Some French diplomats and President Uribe of Colombia believe that Betancourt could have been freed sooner if Paris had not raised the stakes with its heavy-handed campaign for her release. Who knows, but here's the story. 

Why Sarkozy hammers Mandelson, the British villain

Nicolas Sarkozy prides himself on giving it straight. His refusal to talk "wooden language", as the French say, is an attractive quality that helped get him elected. But his sharp tongue can get him into trouble as it has done this week.

In the past two days, while taking up the French presidency of the European Union, he has picked fights with Peter Mandelson, the British EU Commissioner, Bruno Cuche, chief of the French army, Lech Kaczynski, the President of Poland and Patrick Carolis, the boss of France Télévisions, the state broadcasting service.

Why does Sarkozy do it ? Lets take the Mandelson case. Everyone who has watched Sarkozy and chatted with him knows that he is a fierce opponent in debate. He mixes charm with a verbal right hook. Like the good court lawyer that he is, he boils the case down to a single simple point that he hammers as irrefutable.

He loves personalising the argument, fingering the villain to help the jury latch onto his logic. He can be a bully but he enjoys it when his opponent punches back.

That is what he has done with Mandelson, a former government minister and henchman of Tony Blair. He has invested in him all the evils that France sees in the Brussels EU Commission. It's not really personal, although the commissioner's unctuous, high-handed style puts his back up. As Trade Commissioner and a Briton, Mandy usefully stands for everything that France hates in the EU -- l'ultra-libéralisme anglo-saxon, or devotion to the free market.

Sarkozy gets real off camera

Sarkozy en off sur le plateau de France 3

Keen watchers of Nicolas Sarkozy may be interested in this video. Recorded without his knowledge last night by staff at French public television, it shows Super Sarko's nervous and rough side.

The President was waiting to go on air at France 3 to explain how he aimed to rescue the European Union during his six month turn in the EU chair which opened today. He was tense because he had just driven past a mini protest by staff who are upset over his moves to take control of public television. France 3, the channel that covers the regions, is especially alarmed and two of the journalists questioning the head of state signed a protest last week.

The video shows Sarko in his usual impatient form. He snaps at a technician who he believes has failed to return his "bonjour" as he clipped on his microphone. "It's a matter of upbringing," he lectures the man. "When you're a guest you have the right to expect a bonjour... Or we're not in the public service here, we are at a demonstration... Incredible... and serious...That's going to change."   

Then he addresses Gérard Leclerc, one of the interviewers, using the informal -- and disrespectful -- "tu" and asks him: "How long did you spend in Siberia?". The reference (in the cupboard in French) was apparently to the journalist's recent assignment to off camera duties. "I wasn't in favour," he adds.  The exchange shows Sarko's menacing mateyness with journalists.

Sarko gets irritated about the wait and asks if the clock is wrong, fiddling with his Patek Philippe watch, a  wedding gift from Carla Bruni. He tells the interviewers to make sure to mention his morning dash to Carcassonne to commiserate with people wounded in an army base shooting. 

This is minor stuff and I apologise to non French speakers, but it shows the unvarnished Sarko that journalists see. It last went public on a video of him putting down a heckler at the Paris farm show. Today's video was released with obviously mischievous intent by France 3 staff to Rue89, a popular leftwing news site. As I write, some 180,000 people have already watched it and it is spreading fast.

Sarkozy spent some of the interview criticising the output of France Televisions, the public broadcasting company, saying it was too commercial. He wants more theatre and other cultural fare, he said. Last week he caused a furore by announcing that he would in future appoint the France Televisions boss rather than the supposedly independent broadcasting authority. France Televisions is unhappy over a Sarkozy decision to stop it broadcasting commercials in the evening without guarantees of alternative funding.

To be fair to the President, Sarkozy's second studio interview was only the second time that a French president has deigned to go to the TV rather than commanding its cameras to the Elysée palace.