Posted on 07/25/2007 4:37:13 PM PDT by Cincinna
For a woman who reluctantly took on the job of France's first lady, Cecilia Sarkozy has been surprisingly front and centre in the shuttle diplomacy that helped free six medics on death row in Libya.
But her sudden insertion into the process has provoked questions back home in France about her role and upset European Union officials who spent years negotiating with the Libyan authorities. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were accused of infecting children with HIV through transfusions while working at a hospital in Benghazi, Libya, and held in detention for eight years. Medical experts say the patients had already contracted the virus by the time the foreigners arrived.
Yesterday, the six flew to the Bulgarian capital, Bucharest, in a French presidential jet with Mrs. Sarkozy after her charm offensive with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, paid off.
The glamorous former model, who looked relaxed in black pants and a white shirt, did not comment on the day's events. But there was no doubt she had earned kudos for France and her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, the country's new President, while annoying the EU and Britain, both of whom had engaged in long and patient diplomacy to obtain the prisoners' release.
Left-wing critics were quick to accuse the Sarkozys of gate-crashing the EU mission. "What democratic legitimacy do they have, save that she is the wife of the President and he was appointed secretary-general of the Elysee?" asked Benoit Hamon, a Socialist deputy, referring to Mrs. Sarkozy and Claude Gueant, Mr. Sarkozy's chief of staff.
In response, the French President sounded defensive as he lauded his wife's triumph.
"This is not a new form of diplomacy. There was a problem that needed solving. We solved it. Full stop. We didn't do it alone but we solved it. That's what counts," he told reporters.
"We must be pragmatic in international relations as in national ones."
One of the freed nurses had told him she was the "happiest woman in the world," he said.
"She didn't ask me, 'What is the status of your wife? How do things work with Bernard Kouchner, did you keep Francois Fillon informed,' " he said, referring to his Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.
The furor has as much to do with the lack of a defined role for first ladies in France as with the personalities of the Sarkozys.
Cecilia Sarkozy made it clear from the beginning she intended to blaze a new trail. Not for her the soft "good causes" of her immediate predecessor, Bernadette Chirac, or the left-wing enthusiasms of Danielle Mitterand that often embarrassed her husband's government.
In interviews before the election, Mrs. Sarkozy said she would not automatically move into the Elysee palace if her husband won and did not much relish the idea of being France's premiere dame, preferring cowboy boots and jeans to evening gowns.
"She was not content just to give dinner parties and wear dresses from Dior and Saint-Laurent," her friend Isabelle Balkany, a local government official, said yesterday.
"[Mr. Sarkozy] has always drawn on the talents of those around him, including Cecilia. She is also a formidable negotiator," Ms. Balkany told the French newspaper Le Figaro, adding she had received several text messages from her friend during the day.
Roger Karoutchi, the Secretary of State and another friend, added, "She is not acting as a regular diplomat. She won't negotiate with Russia on the missile shield or missiles. She wanted to be part of a humanitarian and social initiative."
Now Mrs. Sarkozy is being hailed as the French equivalent of Princess Diana or, as her husband reportedly suggested on election night, "If you liked Jackie Kennedy, you'll love Cecilia Sarkozy."
The couple first locked eyes on one another when Mr. Sarkozy, in his role as mayor of Neuilly, married the then Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who was nine-months pregnant with her first child, to Jacques Martin, a television announcer.
Although Mr. Martin agreed to step aside, the first Mrs. Sarkozy, daughter of a Corsican pharmacist, was made of sterner stuff and refused for years to give him a divorce even though he was living with Cecilia.
Since then, the Sarkozy marriage has had its ups and downs, some of them reported by France's wilfully blind mainstream media, for whom politicians' relationships remain off bounds.
For example, reporting on her months-long absence with a lover in New York cost the editor of Paris Match magazine his job.
Although Mrs. Sarkozy studied law while moonlighting as a model with one of France's top fashion houses, she never got a degree.
Her employment has mainly consisted of acting as an advisor to her husband, for the most part unpaid.
Now, with the Sarkozys in and around the Elysee, France is getting used to a president who goes jogging and a glamorous first lady who is never far from the headlines. Can Camelot be far behind? As for the Libyan incident, Francois Heisbourg, head of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, said Mr. Sarkozy's critics had missed the point.
"These guys should really relax a little bit. When you release hostages, you don't play by Marquess of Queensberry rules," he said.
awordsworth@nationalpost.com
STAR DIPLOMAT OR IMPOSTOR? FRENCH FIRST LADY IN SPOTLIGHT
"Critics paint the French first lady as a political novice who "gatecrashed" a high-stakes EU deal on the release of six foreign medics from Libya."
"Detractors of President Nicolas Sarkozy accused him of trying to steal the limelight for himself and his wife by sending her to Tripoli with EU negotiator Benita Ferrero-Waldner in the final stage of negotiations."
"France's influential left newspaper Le Monde pointed out that the "field had been amply prepared" before Cecilia Sarkozy's trip.
"The left-wing Guardian was scathing: "The deal was negotiated by the EU but, in a bizarre twist to a sad tale, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia turned up in Tripoli to gatecrash the delivery of the nurses."
" In Italy, La Repubblica also said the Sarkozys had sparked "irritation" in Brussels by "stealing the EU's diplomatic victory".
Cecilia Sarkozy return from Libya with the freed hostages on her plane and the Socialists attack. Nevermind she saved these Bulgarian nurses from being EXECUTED by Khaddafi :
To quote various French Leftist statements (in translation)
“What is the point of Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, I wonder, if he is stripped of his constitutional role in favour of the president’s wife,” asked Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg.
Montebourg complained that Cecilia Sarkozy had “no status, no institutional mandate” to negotiate on France’s behalf.
Le Monde also warned that while “Mr Sarkozy is encouraging his wife to find herself a role, that role will need to be clarified”, while the left-wing Liberation wrote of “a new and unsettling kind of family diplomacy.”
President Sarkozy insisted Cecilia Sarkozy’s role was “decisive” in clinching the final deal, as the only member of the delegation to have met in person with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
“She managed to strike up a personal relationship with Kadhafi, a direct relationship of trust,” said presidential spokesman David Martinon.
Supporters said Sarkozy’s decision to send his wife as personal envoy showed a shrewd understanding of what Le Figaro newspaper described as Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s “unquenchable thirst for recognition”.
“The president played with great skill on his diplomatic keyboard... He introduced a symbol far more powerful than any minister — ‘the boss’s wife’,” wrote the pro-government paper.
Even the left-wing Liberation gave the couple credit for pulling off what it called a “poker trick”, while Italy’s Corriere della Sera said Cecilia, “as a beginner in international politics” had shown a “courage bordering on recklessness, which paid off.”
That "pretty smile" belongs to hardcore Socialist Segolene Royal who lost the Presidential election to Sarko in a landslide.
Someone named 'Deuce' called into Rush today and posed some interesting scenerios ...
If Hillary! becomes president .... her job, in part is to greet visiting dignitaries and traditionally, as a male president, the first lady entertains the wife and family of the dignitary .... does this mean that the bent one would 'entertain' the visiting wife .... daughter?
Are there qualifications required for such a 'position' ?
Does a 'first lady' need to be 'experienced' in such matters?
Did the snobs even express any relief that these people were finally home safe? Hard to fathom. Whiny, spoiled brats. It seems the prisoners release wasn't of the first importance - but that they would get the 'glory' - altho', after 8 long years, I don't quite see what 'limelight' there would be -
How small and petty-minded do you have to be to snipe over who should get credit for the release of the Bulgarians? Just say thank you Madame Sarkozy, thank you EU diplomats, and praise the Lord the prisoners got released from terrorist crazy person Gaddafi’s clutches.
Funny, Freep's spell check does not know Google.
Ditto!
The only thing which would have improved the trip is if she’d pulled out a Beretta .25 and shot Khaddafy right between the eyes, then made the escape with the hostages. :’) But seriously, this is just kissing a terrorist (who is purported to be an ex-terrorist) behind to save some innocent lives. Having Khaddafy back down after Libya was placed back on the pariah list for this heinous crime would have been better. But this is a problem which arose when Chirac was still intercoursing yo everything.
Um.. Thats Segolene Royal, the failed Socialist candidate...
Bill Clinton has already announced publicly that he wants to be referred to as “First Laddie”
Amen!
The nurses were going to be executed. Cecilia Sarkozy brought them back to Bulgaria after eight long years in a Libyan prison.
I hope the French pilots had better navigational information than the Canadian reporter.
So which was it? Did they land in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, or in Bucharest, which is the capital of Romania?
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