Sarkozy pours scorn on Obama's 'inexperience'

Danny Brierley

17.04.09

FRENCH president Nicolas Sarkozy has labelled his US counterpart Barack Obama "inexperienced and indecisive".

The unflattering assessment of Mr Obama's political abilities came during a sweeping broadside against a host of world leaders. Mr Sarkozy has also reportedly labelled the Spanish leader as dim, the German Chancellor as clinging on to France's coat tails and the head of the European Commission as irrelevant.

In the latest candid communiqués from the Elysée Palace, Mr Sarkozy was quoted as telling an all-party group of MPs that Mr Obama "was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry. There are a certain number of things on which he has no position. And he is not always up to standard on decision making and efficiency".

The French president is reportedly irritated by suggestions that Mr Obama convinced China to reach a compromise with Mr Sarkozy over tax havens, and allegedly also claimed that the US leader had "underperformed" on the issue of climate change. He is also said to be annoyed at the almost universal praise for Mr Obama in the world's media.

Claude Askolovitch, a commentator close to the Elysée Palace, wrote: "The president is annoyed at what he sees as the naivety and herd mentality."

Sarkozy forever? EU uneasy on leadership bid

Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:42am EST
-- Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist, the opinions expressed are his own --

By Paul Taylor

PARIS (Reuters) - Not content with a temporary role as first consul, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be emperor of Europe. That, at least, is the way it looks to many of his EU partners.

The energetic French president has relished his term in the European Union's rotating presidency so much -- playing fireman during the Georgia war and the global financial crisis -- that he is loath to cast off the mantle at midnight on December 31.

His aides are working actively on ways to perpetuate his European leadership into 2009 and beyond, using the euro zone, NATO, the new Mediterranean Union, Middle East diplomacy and a continuing mediation role with Russia and Georgia as levers.

The fact that Paris hands over the six-month presidency to the Czech Republic, an EU newcomer with a divided government, a Eurosceptical president and no seat in the euro zone, may help Sarkozy's bid to extend his influence.

But apart from the implicit challenge to EU institutions, the problem is the economic policy direction in which he wants to lead Europe, taking advantage of the credit crisis and recession to push old-fashioned French "dirigisme" (state direction of the economy).

The main obstacle is the reluctance of Germany, the EU's biggest economy and France's traditional partner in leadership.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is deeply suspicious of Sarkozy's efforts to build greater euro zone economic governance and irked by his effort to position himself as the "go to" man in Europe for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama.

She sees his calls for an "economic government of Europe" as a challenge to the independence of the European Central Bank and a recipe for protectionism and government meddling in industry.

"Merkel is always polite and the Germans don't like to be troublemakers. But at some point soon, they are going to say: 'Enough!'," says Ulrike Guerot, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"SUPER SARKO"

"Super Sarko" has called a record number of summits during his hyper-active EU presidency, traveling twice to Moscow to broker a ceasefire and a Russian pullback in Georgia, and twice to Washington to press for a global financial summit and more international regulation in the credit crisis.

He has set ambitious economic agendas for the EU and the G20 grouping of industrialized and emerging powers, although the results have been far more modest.

"Sarkozy has shaken things up, not just out of personal ambition but out of a belief that Europe needs strong political leadership to overcome its complex routine and face up to the challenges of our times," says Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation think-tank.

Giuliani described the French leader in a recent book as "a European in a big hurry," determined to put France back in the pilot's seat of EU integration and willing to use unorthodox methods to achieve his objective.

Sarkozy broke the straitjacket of EU institutions by holding meetings of the leaders of the four biggest European economies -- France, Germany, Britain and Italy -- and of the 15-nation Eurogroup of countries that share the euro single currency.

He formed a pragmatic alliance with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, not an EU enthusiast, to promote bold steps to rescue banks, revive interbank lending and respond to recession.

And he has displayed a ruthless streak in undermining those he perceives as standing in the way of his leadership.

Blaming tax havens for part of the financial crisis, Sarkozy dared to snipe at Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Europe's longest serving leader and chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, over his country's banking secrecy.

He also signaled that the financial crisis was likely to require more euro zone summits in 2009, which he wants to chair.

Juncker, a critic of French budget deficits, speaks on behalf of the Eurogroup and is a contender for the post of president of the European Council of EU leaders if and when the Lisbon Treaty reforming the bloc's institutions takes effect.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Sarkozy's key fixer during the EU presidency, openly criticized Germany for resisting French proposals for a coordinated European economic recovery program.

"Why don't you think the Germans are making a profound mistake?" he asked a radio interviewer. "All we are saying is that it is better to have an economic union and economic coordination than to have disorderly national responses."

DIPLOMATIC CALENDAR

Next year's diplomatic calendar offers Sarkozy plenty of opportunities to flex his leadership muscles while Germany will be inwardly focused in an election year and Britain mired in a deeper and more painful recession than the rest of Europe.

One showcase will be an April 3-4 NATO summit, jointly hosted by France and Germany in Strasbourg and Kehl, which will be the centerpiece of Obama's first presidential visit to Europe and mark France's return to the alliance's military wing.

Expect Sarkozy to put on an impressive show to highlight Paris' role as Washington's new indispensable ally, perhaps offering more troops for Afghanistan and proposing a European peacekeeping role in any Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

The French have secured two years as co-president of the Mediterranean Union grouping the EU and its southern neighbors, giving Paris opportunities for high-profile initiatives with North Africa and in the Middle East.

Sarkozy's gambit of bringing Syria in from the cold in exchange for cooperation in Lebanon could bear fruit in 2009 as Obama looks for an exit from Iraq and breathes new life into Middle East peacemaking.

His good relations with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which enabled him to broker the Georgia ceasefire, could pay off if Obama opts for detente rather than confrontation with Moscow.

But his coziness with the Kremlin worries EU governments in central and eastern Europe.

The risk is that Sarkozy, whose restless energy sometimes gets the better of diplomatic calculation, overplays his hand, offending European partners and irritating Washington.

America's new French connection

Commentary: Sarkozy and Obama prepare combination to save the world -- at least for a while

By David Marsh, MarketWatch
Last update: 12:01 a.m. EDT Oct. 27, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Franco-American presidential combinations have frequently stirred the blood, but they produce a cocktail that has mostly been laced with venom.
Charles de Gaulle challenged John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson over gold; François Mitterrand tried to stand up to Ronald Reagan over Star Wars; Jacques Chirac defied George W. Bush on Iraq.
In the future, such acrimony could all be forgotten. If Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidency, expect an extraordinary love-in with French President Nicolas Sarkozy across a broad range of economic and monetary issues. Franco-American relations may never be the same again.
The ingredients are all in place. The French president swept to power in May 2007, burning with Americanophilia -- and with ill-concealed passion for hyper-active political management.
Sarkozy spent much of his first 15 months in office nursing grievances that the rest of the world was not taking much notice of his demands for high-level measures to improve the international economy.
Since the beginning of October, however, Sarkozy has burst into the headlines with a vengeance. Presiding over European affairs while France takes its six-month turn in the chair of the European Union, Sarkozy played a leading role in a series of high-profile measures to coordinate the continent's attempt to climb back from the economic abyss.
Provided he wins, Obama seems to be just the man to join a duet with Sarkozy that could complete the French president's transformation.
Problem: Freshly-elected American leader promises to change the world, but lacks any kind of foreign policy experience. Solution: Find a successful and energetic mentor with similar inspirational ideas.
What better candidate than the enfant terrible in the Elysée Palace? Six years Obama's senior, Sarkozy can dispense advice with the aura, by comparison with the Democrat leader, of an elder statesman. The alternative sources of wisdom for Obama -- the U.K.'s Gordon Brown and Germany's Angela Merkel -- look pale and tired by comparison, and both face difficult elections in the next two years.
The two men's similarities are striking.
Like Obama, Sarkozy has managed to build a brilliant political career that has overcome his "outsider" status as the son of an immigrant father. Like Obama, Sarkozy exudes missionary fervor. Like Obama, Sarkozy presides over ample reserves of innovative thinking. The potential list of issues on which both men would like to spend time could hardly be wider-ranging.
Reforming the International Monetary Fund? Expanding public spending on infrastructure? Improving coordination between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank? Establishing new mechanisms for banking supervision? Safeguarding domestic companies against aggressive sovereign wealth funds? Whatever the questions, the Sarkozy & Obama combination can be relied upon to come up with the answers.
All these topics can be expected to make the agenda when Sarkozy attends the planned world economic summit to be convened by George W. Bush and his designated successor on Nov. 14 in Washington. A fine opportunity to put the world to rights.
With the right kind of American at his side, Sarkozy can escape the cares of recession, high unemployment and low competitiveness at home, and open up a new front for an improved transatlantic alliance in a troubled world.
The stuff of dreams -- and there's just a chance that the anticipated new bond between Paris and Washington will last longer than a honeymoon period.

Angela Merkel sees red at Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for state intervention

Adam Sage in Paris
President Sarkozy is set for a showdown with Angela Merkel today after infuriating the German Chancellor with the launch of a €100 billion (£80 billion) French sovereign investment fund that he exhorted other European governments to copy.

Brushing aside Berlin's qualms, Mr Sarkozy yesterday outlined plans for the fund as part of a programme to strengthen public sector control over private business. He also promised €175 billion of direct state investment in the economy, over and above the sovereign fund, in the next three years.

Claiming that the financial turmoil had killed “the dictatorship of the market”, he pledged to lead Europe towards a new economic system, which opponents said bears a striking resemblance to the old French model of heavy state intervention.

Mr Sarkozy said the drive would be spearheaded by an investment vehicle - loosely described as a sovereign wealth fund - to be set up by the end of the year. The fund would “intervene massively each time a strategic company is in need of capital”.

“We cannot leave business at the mercy of predators,” Mr Sarkozy said. “What oil producers do, what China does, what Russia does, there's no reason that France should not do.”

However, critics said that, with budget debt of €1,200 billion, Paris did not have any wealth to spare.

In practice, Mr Sarkozy appears intent on merging a variety of existing state investment tools into a fund under the control of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the institution managing state savings accounts and pensions. The French Government said that the fund would be worth about €100 billion.

Mr Sarkozy's speech, made in the French Alps, put flesh on ideas floated before MEPs in Strasbourg this week, when he called for action to stop European company's from falling into foreign hands. He wants Europe's leaders to draw inspiration from the 2004 rescue of Alstom, the engineering giant, which he oversaw as Finance Minister. The French Government bought a €720 million stake; two years later, this was sold for €1.98 billion.

But the initiative has widened the rift between Berlin and Paris over how to handle the financial crisis.

A spokesman for the German Government suggested that the Gallic move might fall foul of European law. He said that Mrs Merkel would hold what is certain to be a frosty meeting with Mr Sarkozy to discuss the investment fund during the summit of EU and Asian leaders in Beijing today.