Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in London on Tuesday to boost his image as an international statesman and persuade French expatriates in London to elect him president and to return to France.
The centre-right French Interior Minister, keen to temper his image as a populist hard-man and appeal to workers on the left, will lunch with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he has praised for ”an ability to rally the left while seducing part of the right”.
Sarkozy’s choice of London for his first foreign trip since launching his presidential campaign is seen as deeply symbolic. He is keen to present an image of himself as an international statesman, a friend of Blair and close to the United States-British alliance.
However, on a trip to Washington last year his declaration that he was proud to be a ”friend of America” received a hostile response back home, and he has restated his long-held opposition to the war in Iraq. But he is also desperate for new allies in the European Union, and his intentions to shake up France’s sclerotic economy has led him to favour aspects of the ”Anglo-Saxon” model, which many in France dread.
On Tuesday afternoon he will tour a London job centre in a clear show of support for the British economic system, notably its looser labour market and ability to create 2,5-million jobs in 10 years while France is battling with high unemployment. ”He is keen to see what he can learn from a British job centre,” his spokesperson said.
After a visit to Churchill’s Cabinet war rooms, Sarkozy will then address 2 000 French expatriates at a rally in central London. He has often spoken of the need to lure back to France the hundreds of thousands of highly qualified graduates who have moved to Britain, fleeing unemployment and a sluggish economy. But his courting of the London diaspora is part of a concerted effort by his ruling centre-right party to woo the 800 000 potential voters outside France who could swing a close-run second round.
Between 200 000 and 300 000 French people live in Britain and about 60 000 have registered to vote in the spring presidential election. With an average age of 29, most are part of a brain drain from France’s universities and many work in the city. ”France is in the process of becoming a country of emigration,” Thierry Mariani of Sarkozy’s UMP party has warned.
Sarkozy is also keen to win back the youth vote that is currently tipped towards his socialist rival Ségolène Royal, who has focused on internet campaigning.
Laurence Azzéna-Gougeon of the UMP London branch, who organised the rally, said those invited included restaurant workers, city financiers and students, and were mostly young. She said it would be a ”popular, not VIP” meeting, adding: ”The young are interested in change, so they are very interested in Nicolas Sarkozy.”
The visit has thrown the spotlight on the close relationship between Sarkozy and Blair. The two men speak regularly and in recent years have had a series of both official and unofficial meetings, including while on holiday in Florence and during Sarkozy’s trip to London to celebrate his reconciliation with his wife, Cecilia.
Sarkozy has taken advice from Blair on policy and the euro but also on how to run his campaign, prompting the media to question how far his spin and media offensive is modelled on the New Labour machine. Some commentators have even wondered whether Blair has inspired a new trend in France of politicians being photographed in their swimming trunks.
Although Sarkozy has made speeches saying the French must learn English, he has struggled with the language himself, failing to get a qualification from one of Paris’s elite postgraduate colleges because his marks in English were too low. Blair speaks to him in French, using the familiar ”tu” form of address.
Catherine Nay, author of a new biography of Sarkozy, told the Guardian: ”Among all the European leaders, he likes and admires Mr Blair a lot. When Cherie Blair comes to Paris, she has dinner at Mr Sarkozy’s Interior Ministry. The two men see each other on their holidays and for lunch.” — Guardian Unlimited Â