What is going on? (Via NYT; January 17 2008)
Firstly,
In the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, [French Pres. Sarkozy] signed a deal to create a permanent French military base there, which French officials said would involve 400 to 500 air, naval and ground personnel. The base will give France, a major arms supplier in the Arab world, a limited but important role in helping to protect a strategic energy zone, gather intelligence and warn Iran against aggression toward its neighbors.
The pact was twinned with a separate French deal to help the tiny state build two nuclear energy reactors.
“France,” Mr. Sarkozy said, “responds to its friends.”
Why is he using the threat of Iran to put French forces in an Arab country? Why is France so concerned about Iran? Secondly,
In Saudi Arabia the day before, Mr. Sarkozy infused a speech with more than a dozen references to God, a very un-French thing to do, because France prides itself on its strict separation of church and state.
Praising Saudi Arabia for its strong religious base, Mr. Sarkozy referred to God, “who does not enslave man, but liberates him, God who is the rampart against unbridled pride and the folly of men.”
Mr. Sarkozy left the kingdom with a sword and agreements on expanding oil and gas cooperation and political dialogue and providing university and professional training. He also offered France’s help in developing nuclear energy facilities there.
One still however cannot wear hijab in school. God liberates; the French State mandates. Lastly, it's all politics:
Certainly, Mr. Sarkozy’s standing at home is suffering. Two polls in the past two days indicate that his popularity continues to slip. Only 45 percent of the French who responded said they approved of Mr. Sarkozy’s performance, down from 51 percent in December, according to a BVA poll released Tuesday. Forty-eight percent had a negative opinion of him, up from 43 percent.
In an Ipsos poll released Wednesday, Mr. Sarkozy’s popularity dropped in a month to 49 percent in a month from 55 percent.
The flaccid economy and the high price of consumer goods are two of the main reasons for the slippage. Mr. Sarkozy’s seeming lack of focus has not helped.
After he predicted at last week’s news conference that France’s 35-hour workweek would disappear this year, labor unions and the political opposition attacked him, saying he was trying to subvert French law. He reversed himself the next day, saying, “It is not the government’s intention to abolish the legal working limit.”
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