Sarkozy tasks Juppe with repairing French image

PARIS, (Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy is  betting on one of France’s most tested politicians to restore  credibility to French diplomacy at a crucial time for relations  with North Africa and his own popularity ratings.

Sarkozy, who faces a pasting from the left if he runs for  re-election in 2012, named veteran conservative Alain Juppe as  foreign minister yesterday after Michele Alliot-Marie quit over  her bungled handling of the Tunisia crisis.

An experienced technocrat who was a deft foreign minister in  the 1990s, Juppe is a smart choice to repair the damage done by  Alliot-Marie — who was being flown to Tunisian resorts in the  jet of a friend of former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali  while protesters below were battling to oust him.

France’s image is key for Sarkozy today, not just because of  the unrest spreading across North Africa, but also because he  needs voters to see him shining on the world stage as leader  until November of the G20 and G8 economic powers.

Juppe — prime minister in the mid-90s under his political  mentor President Jacques Chirac who called him “the best among  us” — will add weight and know-how to French diplomacy.

That is vital as Western powers club together to decide what  action to take with Libya and figure out how to build new  relationships with transitional governments in countries where  they enjoyed cosy ties with authoritarian rulers.

Yet Juppe’s promotion reinforces the idea that a struggling  Sarkozy now has no choice but to lean on old conservatives from  Chirac’s camp. What amounts, by French media calculations, to  his ninth cabinet tweak in less than four years also makes him  look jumpy and impulsive.

While opposition politicians grumbled that Alliot-Marie  should have been sacked sooner, French media blasted Sarkozy for  not mentioning Alliot-Marie in his prime-time speech and instead  implying that the ministerial switch was entirely due to the  changing landscape in North Africa.

“Alain Juppe’s return to centre stage after Fillion was in  fashion last year, reveals a clear trend: Sarkozy has no  leadership left on the right and will struggle not to be  replaced by a successor,” said the weekly Marianne in an online  editorial, referring to France’s meek Prime Minister Francois  Fillon, whom Juppe will easily upstage.

FOREIGN POLICY IS NEW BUGBEAR

Sarkozy’s popularity ratings have floundered around the 30  percent mark for months. Economic gloom and his clash with  unions last year over pension reform have weighed, as has a wide  perception that he is too flashy and frenetic.

As recent polls showed people were fed up with Alliot-Marie,  Sarkozy’s ratings slipped in tandem. One survey, found 59  percent of respondents did not want him to run in 2012. In  another, two-thirds of respondents had a negative view of him.

As well as public anger over Alliot-Marie, whose parents did  a property deal with the same businessman friend of Ben Ali  during the family holiday, Sarkozy has come under fire himself  for France’s diplomatic shortcomings.
A group of diplomats published an open letter in the daily  Le Monde laying into Sarkozy’s conduct of foreign policy and  saying his short-term approach based on advisors like Chief of  Staff Claude Gueant had led to an amateurism that was eroding  French influence.

A close aide to Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, penned a livid  response the next day in the same newspaper, indicating the  president had been stung by the criticism and adding fuel to  speculation he would replace Alliot-Marie.