Sarkozy, the pro-American President of France

Some people who used to describe Mr. Sarkozy as a pro-American, pro-Israel free-marketeer, are starting to have their doubts. Or so it seems. (Emphasis mine.)

[T]he character who raised most eyebrows was Hubert Védrine, chief of staff for a socialist president, François Mitterrand, and foreign minister between 1997 and 2002.

Last Thursday, unconfirmed reports suggested that Mr. Sarkozy wanted Mr. Védrine to become foreign minister again — a position that he had denied to Ms. Alliot-Marie.

On Friday morning, Mr. Védrine was spotted leaving Mr. Sarkozy's office and confided to the press that he was "not quite sure" about the proposal.

Many Sarkozy supporters expressed their dismay at the wooing of Mr. Védrine, for he is not just a socialist but stands for everything in world affairs that Mr. Sarkozy is supposed to be against: He is anti-American, anti-Zionist, and he favors conciliatory moves toward rogue states and terrorist organizations. Patrick Devedjian, a UMP member of the National Assembly and one of Mr. Sarkozy's closest political friends, dryly observed that "one does not enter the Cabinet unless one fully endorses the president's platform." Others contended that Mr. Védrine had just been offered an adviser's position, roughly the equivalent of being an American National Security Council chairman.

But why was such a contestable figure approached? The answer is that some of Mr. Sarkozy's aides, including David Martinon, have urged the conservative leader to return to the Gaullist fold, if only to assuage what they believe to be "anti-American French public opinion." Bringing back Mr. Védrine to the Quai d'Orsay would be a symbolic gesture to appease such sentiments.

Yesterday, unconfirmed reports surfaced suggesting that Mr. Védrine was being groomed for the Ministry of Justice and that another socialist, Bernard Kouchner, the founder of the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières and a former U.N. high commissionner in Kosovo, was being offered the foreign affairs portfolio.

I will wait until Mr. Sarkozy's first government and its members are officially announced to say 'I told you so'. I guess rumors are just that: rumors. So far. But these ones are distressing. Just don't hold your breath.

Also, from a New York Sun editorial:

President-elect Sarkozy hasn't yet offered the Quai D'Orsay to Hubert Vedrine, but even the fact he has even considered doing so — a matter which came out in France in the past few days — is enough to put a damper on this side of the Atlantic at the prospect of a new, pro-American hegemony in Paris. The way it was put to us in a cable from Michel Gurfinkiel, the guide for those perplexed by the Fifth Republic, is that M. Vedrine is a "former socialist foreign minister with strong anti-American and anti-Israeli feelings." How might one put it — that he was a "s---y little" foreign minister?

(...)

M. Vedrine also dilated on the democratic bona fides of Hamas and how regrettable it was that the West was not embracing the accession of Hamas within the Palestinian Arab Authority. He said: "It is necessary to correct the Occidental reaction to the Hamas victory." He wants Europe to counter-balance American Jewry so that America might force Israel to be more forthcoming with the Arabs. He fretted that the West is perceived in the Arab world as hypocritical for encouraging democracy and then condemning the Palestinians for electing Hamas. On Sunday talk surfaced that Mr. Sarkozy may instead send to the Quai D'Orsay another socialist, Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders, whom our Mr. Gurfinkiel calls a "much more sensible option."

It seems, in any event, that the way the Fifth Republic is set up, the presidency is only part of the prize. Less than a month after Mr. Sarkozy is to be sworn, there will be the election for the national assembly. If Mr. Sarkozy's faction fails, the clout of the new president will be diminished at the outset. By hinting that someone like M. Vedrine could emerge with the foreign, or another, portfolio, Mr. Sarkozy no doubt hopes to attract in the parliamentary elections support from those to his left. The game leaves America and Israel in doubt about whether they will be able to look forward to an improvement in relations with France.