EUROPEAN DIARY:Caught off guard by the Arab uprisings which exposed France's waning diplomatic power, Sarkozy is acting tough on Libya, writes ARTHUR BEESLEY
BEHOLD A French president in full flight, at war in Libya, at odds with his staunch German ally, at pains to banish his tardy response to revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
It was after midnight when Nicolas Sarkozy addressed reporters at the EU summit last week. The high-voltage war president was in a mood for jaw-jaw. He took a handful of questions, reeling off the answers in a series of ardent monologues.
This was Sarko in battle mode, the familiar guise of a man who bestrides the stage with legendary directness. This was also a man whose political popularity at home is sagging badly.
When he has a target – and mostly he does – he’s uncompromising and not apt to hide it. At the very height of the sovereign debt crisis last year, he took aim at the “speculators”. When his Roma expulsions drew ire from Brussels, it was Commission chief José Manuel Barroso.
At the prior summit Sarkozy had sharp words over corporate tax with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, then two days in office. Unhappy at that point with Europe’s stance on Libya, he also let rip at EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton. At the previous gathering, in early February, he clashed with Brian Cowen. That’s his gung-ho way.
Ever the mighty man of action, Sarkozy declared on Thursday night that he had been on the phone to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates. The prince promised a dozen fighter planes to help enforce the Libyan no-fly zone. The campaign was steadily advancing, Sarko declared, a chilling slaughter of innocents averted in Benghazi.
Straying far from the strictures of UN resolution 1973, he warned that other Arab dictators would receive the Gadafy treatment if they followed his line. Tyrants, beware.
“France calls for there to be no violence against protesting civilians. It is their right to demonstrate. Every leader, and every Arab leader in particular, needs to understand that the reaction of the international community will be the same every time.” Every time no less; every single time. That’s exactly what he said. Seize the moment, save the world.
Sarkozy is under mounting pressure in France, slipping in the polls before his re-election campaign next year. Caught off guard by the Arab insurrections and castigated for the waning of French diplomatic power, he resolved early in the Libyan uprising to go for broke.
He was the first to “recognise” the Libyan opposition and made a useful alliance with British premier David Cameron to seek a no-fly zone. But their joint call for military intervention was at first spurned. Only as Gadafy loyalists stormed towards Benghazi was a UN Security Council mandate procured. Since then Sarkozy has defiantly cast himself in the risky cloak of warrior-in-chief.
Where does all this leave his European policy? At one level it draws him a little closer to Cameron, with whom he signed a defence pact in November to share resources.
Although their two countries have markedly different spheres of influence, in foreign affairs they bat more strongly than all other EU member states. They have asserted their primacy, but not without deep divisions over Nato’s involvement.
On paper, but only on paper, Europe wants to speak with one voice through Baroness Ashton. However, the disjointed response to the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East suggests the big EU powers have no intention of yielding ground to Brussels.
There is another element to this story. Sarkozy is a player of rank in the sovereign debt emergency, Europe’s most pressing internal problem, but plays second fiddle to German chancellor Angela Merkel. This remains the case even though Franco-German unity remains a “necessary but not sufficient” requirement for progress in EU economic affairs.
It’s still the chancellor who sets the tone and pace of the response to the debt crisis. He typically follows, albeit very close behind.
That was the way with the Deauville declaration last October, when he endorsed her plan to put debt restructuring on the EU agenda and a small revision of the Lisbon Treaty. It was that way too when he backed her “competitiveness pact” to encourage Germanic fiscal rigour in other countries.
Similarly, it was the chancellor who insisted on IMF involvement in Europe’s bailout scheme. That manoeuvre provided an entrée into the crisis for IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn, the likely Socialist rival to Sarkozy in next year’s election.
Strauss Kahn became so prominent, in fact, that some still see him as the only winner in the entire affair.
No wonder Sarkozy is playing tough on Libya. Merkel wanted no truck with military action but he marched ahead regardless. Thousands of lives have been saved, he says. Although Gadafy’s departure is by no means assured, Sarkozy is not for retreating. That’s not his style.