Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III Metternich and its very first application to Otto Von Bismarck (while handling the balance of power between Europe’s 19 th century powers). In few words, this German word justifies the abandon of humanist principles and values while the national interest of a country is at stake. In Sarkozy’s foreign politics, three main shifting of policies (both in tone and actions) are to be mentioned at this regard: Libya, China, and Syria. On the Libyan question, France was not directly involved: the dispute was between Bulgary and Libya. As a matter of fact, Sarkozy in an intermediation move negotiated the release in July 2007 of “Bulgarian nurses jailed in Libya for allegedly having deliberately infected Libyan children with HIV in 1998” (Meunier, 2008). His (then) wife, Cecilia, played also a role in the happy ending of this crisis which still according to Meunier raised the profile of France as a diplomatic actor and earned Sarkozy “triumphal headlines- if only briefly- before the cost of this diplomatic coup came out in the public sooner than Sarkozy seemed to have anticipated” (2008). Gaddafi’s son unveiled the signature of an important (and still secret at that time) arm deal with France. The Aviation Week and Space Technology publication revealed that the agreement was up to 14 billion Euros, and was to include 14 Rafales, 8 Tiger attack helicopters, 15 EC725/225 transport helicopters and 10 Fennec light single-engine helos, along with a range of land and naval hardware (2007). Meunier for her part explained in 2008 that “it was also later revealed that France may have sold a nuclear reactor to Libya as part of the deal”. Finally, the Libyan dictator even enjoyed a full rehabilitation “in a western country since his banishment from international diplomacy”: Sarkozy invited him to a full-scale state-visit to France, giving as a pretext a “foreign policy of reconciliation” (Poirier, 2008). In this case, the Libyan arms A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 96
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III contracts and what it implied in terms of benefits for the French armament sector forcefully helped this “reconciliation” stance. Second: China. The initially very critique standpoint of Sarkozy vis a vis China’s human rights violations and his recognition of the rightfulness of the Tibetan claims after his December 2008 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Poland, as reported by Tibet’s Monthly Magazine in its article entitled China and France are friends again, Tibet being the watchword for caution, ended up sharply in 2009. As a matter of fact, an informal meeting of France’s and China’s heads of state (held during a G20 Summit) surprisingly sealed an unexpected warming of the Sino-French relations, officialized by Sarkozy’s consequent communiqué according to which “France pledged not to support any form of Tibet independence” (2009). Afterwards, a long list of fruitful domains of cooperation between the Chinese giant and a human rights-blind France progressively developed, including, and as listed by Jiansheng: a bilateral trade agreement with France worth more than 20 billion Euros, France unconditioned support of the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, a nuclear full-scale cooperation, a bright future for Chinese investments in France in return of tax concessions and the simplification of visa procedures for Chinese investors, France’s support of the one-China policy and thus its opposition to Taiwan’s bid for UN membership, and finally France pushing for lifting the weapons embargo against China (2010). It is worthless to lastly mention that Sarkozy ceased sharp his concerns about the human rights situation in China. Finally, France’s post-Chirac Middle-Eastern design involved the recommencement of diplomatic relations with Syria. In fact, since 2008, the rapprochement was materialized by Sarkozy’s inclusion of Syria in his Mediterranean Union blueprint. As explained by Cumley, “and A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 97
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