After years of Chirac-style anti-Americanism, it will be nice to have a French president who wants to be friends.
Nicolas Sarkozy, son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected president of France on Sunday, calling for reinvigorating the economy and strengthening ties with the United States. (No, he’s not so pro-American that he favors U.S. policy in Iraq.)
In his victory speech, Sarkozy said that “our American friends … can count on our friendship, which was forged in the tragedies of (our) history …France will always be by their side when they need her. But … friendship is accepting that one’s friends can think differently.”
Sarkozy has the good sense to think differently about Iraq, for one thing, and about climate change. He warned the U.S. “not to block the battle against global warming but … to take the lead.”
Sarkozy succeeds Jacques Chirac, an all-too-eager critic of American policies whose opposition to the invasion of Iraq turned out to be well founded.
Sarkozy takes office on May 16. His election is an opportunity for the U.S. and France to work more effectively in places like Afghanistan. It will be nice to have a reasonable partner on the U.N. Security Council and when dealing with matters involving the European Union. Nicholas Dungan of the French-American Foundation says “France under Sarkozy will be a faithful friend but also a constructive critic.”
The longstanding tensions between the U.S. and France didn’t start with Iraq, but Chirac’s outspokenness rankled many Americans and quite a few French. After Chirac publicly criticized the 2003 U.S. invasion, Sarkozy was said to be critical of Chirac. In a 2006 interview with LeMonde, Sarkozy described the 2003 period as a “crisis” for Franco-American relations. He said that “Americans felt that they were abandoned by a nation with which they had felt close historical ties and shared values.” Chirac blasted Sarkozy’s comments as “irresponsible” and “lamentable.”
Still, tense relations between France and the U.S. go back a ways. Philip H. Gordon said in the National Interest publication in 2000 that “resentment and frustration” have marked French-American relations since the end of World War II. Charles de Gaulle, while an ally, was described as “an exceptionally cranky one.”
Sarkozy, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, wants to strengthen strategic and economic ties between Europe and the United States. It’s a breath of fresh air.
