I See London, I See France... Posted by Heather Hurlburt

This morning the BBC had an absolute festival of coverage of Nicholas Sarkozy's inauguration in Paris -- a nice bookend to the Blair-o-rama of the previous week. This is certainly going to be interesting:  will he really make Socialist, Medecins Sans Frontieres founder and 70s radical Bernard Kouchner foreign minister?  What was a "senior adviser to the new President" doing invoking "what Margaret Thatcher did in Britain" as a model for the nouveau regime on the BBC this morning?

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Sarkozy and Gordon Brown across the Channel is how busy commentators are in seeing what they want to see?  The BBC quotes some unidentified European as seeing Brown, Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with EU Commission president Barroso, as a pro-American "dream team" of economic liberals ready for a big shakeup.

Meanwhile, last week a  commentator in the gloriously, unrepentantly troglodyte Human Events said of Gordon Brown:  "It may well be that when we look at England, we'll see France."   

If Elysee Palace advisors are approvingly citing Thatcher, maybe he's inadvertently on to something.  But it seems rather more likely that when we look at Europe we'll see a bunch of countries trying to balance renewed appeals to nationalism (cf. Sarkozy's first order -- that a letter to his parents from a martyred WWII Resistance fighter be read in the schools) against the splintering global pressures of economics, immigration and political Islam.  And who's a useful bad guy when it comes to renewed appeals to nationalism... we are. 

Comments

[Zathras]

I claim no expertise about French politics, but what Hurlburt seems to fear about Sarkozy is that he would do what Chirac would in his place. My reading of the coverage is that Sarkozy is much more concerned about domestic politics and what is happening within France. He has a lot of things he wants to do in that area; Chirac didn't, and so often yielded to the temptation to use assertions of French independence in foreign policy to generate nationalist atmospherics. Sarkozy has committed to do so much domestically that he'd find himself in a lot of trouble at home if he started trying to divert attention in this way.

[Cal]

It should also be pointed out that Chirac -- for all his supposed "anit-Americanism" -- has cooperated with us on most important issues (e.g. Lebanon, CIA renditions, Iran, Haiti). We've even worked together to facilitate a civil war in Gaza. Give credit where it's due.

I'm more worried that Sarkozy will burnish his nationalist credentials by being tough on Muslims. This would be far more damaging to American interests than anything Heather seems worried about. It's of paramount importance that all the nations of Europe start integrating their Muslim populations.

[HeatherH]

Cal, I completely agree with your concerns about Sarkozy and France's Muslims. In fact, I didn't mention it because I think it's almost a given. I'm at a loss how to write/talk about it in a way that expresses really fundamental concern at a moment when, understandably, our European friends' ability to hear us expressing concerns about their policy choices is at an all-time low.

[lisa]

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