France: Weasel No More?

French President-elect, Nicholas Sarkozy, who didn’t say much about foreign policy during the election campaign, has signaled major changes are ahead for France’s foreign policy:

Sarkozy sought to quell that uncertainty in a speech barely 30 minutes after his electoral triumph.

France, he said, will stand alongside “all those persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships.” He reached out to “all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy and humanism.”

“France will not abandon women who are condemned to the burqa,” the full head-and-body covering worn by women in Afghanistan and some Muslim women in Britain and elsewhere, he said. He did not elaborate on how that would translate into policy.

Sarkozy was a member of the government that instituted a law banning head scarves and other “ostentatious” religious apparel in classrooms.

In his speech, he appealed for all warring parties in the Middle East to “overcome hate.”

“France will be at the side of the world’s oppressed,” he went on. “That is the message of France, that is the identity of France, that is the history of France.”

While some of the language was reminiscent of Chirac - a fellow conservative and one-time Sarkozy mentor - the message itself was new.

“This is a new generation,” Heisbourg said. “It is a clear change. It is values rather than interests. He talked about what the Americans would call ‘democracy promotion.’”

Sarkozy faces charges from the left he will be Bush’s “poodle,” but I think French political culture would prevent him from becoming one, even if he wanted to become one.

Fun times are ahead on the former weasel watch.