You are in:
- Contents » Propaganda
The Carla Strategy Pays Off
"God bless Carla" says French PM; EURSOC had her right all along!
Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to Britain had a number of goals. To present a "rebooted" President on his best behaviour following a series of disappointing polls and to dangle the possibility of a Franco-British engine in the European air, following the President's cool reception in Berlin, were the main hopes of Sarko's team.
A less-discussed, but doubtless important personal aim for Sarkozy, however, was to introduce his new wife Carla Bruni on the world stage as Europe's leading first lady.
It's too early to judge the success of his political aims; to judge by the reception in the British press, however, Plan Carla was a huge success.
Practically every British newspaper featured the Presidential party, with Mme Bruni-Sarkozy in pride of place, on its cover.
"We all love Carla Bruni", said the Telegraph, reporting on how crusty old Lords who barely show up to Parliament crammed into the Hall to catch a glimpse of la belle Carla, who perched demurely on a throne as her husband addressed them.
The left-wing Guardian had Carla chatting with Prince Philip, while the Independent, which used to boast about avoiding Royal stories, featured Carla's Dior shoes for its army of foot fetishist readers.
Even the Daily Express made room in its usual Maddie / Diana / bizarre health threat agenda for a full-length front page photo of Carla on her way to the state banquet.
The Brits shook fashion editors out of their between-show slumbers to comment on Carla's style: "Jackie Kennedy", "chic and flattering", "serene calm", " a combination of the chic and the bourgeois lycée" they cooed. Observers noted how the Italian Carla wore French Dior (designed by an Englishman) on her first state engagement - a stark contrast to the President's previous wife, Cécilia, who raised eyebrows by wearing Italian Prada to her husband's investiture.
Royal protocol correspondents - a peculiarly British breed, who watch every flicker of Her Majesty's inscrutable features for signs that overactive foreign guests have caused offence - were disappointed. Both Carla and her husband (who, to be fair, raised more worries) behaved impeccably: At one stage Sarko offered to let the Queen enter the stagecoach first - gentlemanly, perhaps, but one is not allowed to observer the Royal rear as it mounts the steps, so Liz made it clear he should go before her. The Daily Mail, which is always on the lookout to be offended by something, anything, praised Carla, but noted that she seemed extremely nervous on meeting the Queen.
As for The Sun, which rarely misses an opportunity to bash our cousins across the Channel, the Sarkozys were hailed as "the Gaul scorers" - a reference both to the alleged romantic antics of the couple, and the French team's defeat of the hapless English in a football friendly in Paris.
France may have won the upper hand in the football, but the English were keen to remind the visiting party of greater victories in the past. Parliamentary sources spoke of how paintings celebrating Wellington and Waterloo were specially spotlit behind the President as he delivered his speech. Despite this, he enjoyed a storming reception - his speechwriters are clever fellows, and obviously aware that if you spend twenty minutes praising Britain's martial glory and defeat of Hitler, you can get away with murder in any subsequent remarks.
Sarkozy called for Britain to play a more active role in the EU and praised the Lisbon Treaty, but parliamentarians were still basking in the warm glow of his words on the greatness of Britain (and the warm glow of Mme Bruni Sarkozy, to be fair) to notice.
So, with one or two grumbling exceptions, the visit has been a triumph.
That said, the British weren't Sarkozy's main audience. His grand visit won't do a lot of good if it leaves him and Carla as Britain's favourite couple, but is received poorly in the home market.
Sure enough, there were grumblers. If some leftish Brits were bemused by Sarkozy's words on a war which ended before he was even born, a couple of French gauchistes whinged that they thought the French Revolution put an end to Frenchmen paying homage to Royalty.
While this morning's newspaper websites are dominated by the trial of alleged serial killer Michel Fourniret, the front pages cover the state visit in some style. Le Figaro, the centre-right journal, has the same photo as the Guardian uses on its front page. Inside, it speaks of an Anglo-French "honeymoon."
Centre-right Le Monde has its usual satirical cartoon, this time of the Royal Banquet with the Queen looking horrified as Sarkozy checks the results of the France-England match on his mobile phone (Sarkozy is said to have checked his SMS messages during an audience with the Pope last year).
Left-wing Libération consigns the Sarko visit to a box above the masthead, describing his "crazy day" in London (the main story reflects on economic problems at home). Inside, Libé discusses how the British press "became Francophile" for the day. Like the Figaro, Libé can't resist a minute-by-minute account of the visit.
As for the readers' responses, the comments line as, as might be expected, with the newspapers. Libé readers on the whole attack the President and the spectacle. However, Sarkozy probably judged that Libération's 145,000 far-left readers would not support him, even if he married Arlette Laguiller and made his first state visit to Cuba.
The response is more positive among readers on the largely pro-Sarkozy Figaro. In 16 pages of comments, there is a selection of reasoned comment, hard-left trolling, and swooning over the performance of Carla Bruni, judged to be largely positive.
Still, it is too early to tell how the visit will affect Sarkozy's ratings - a crisis at home could blow any advances already made. François Fillon, the Prime Minister, is reported to have told aides "God bless Carla" on seeing how well-behaved the bling-bling President had become under her tutelage. But can he keep his instincts in check for ever?
Charles Bremner, who picked up the quote from Fillon, is probably right to argue that "The Windsor visit has helped Mr Sarkozy at the start of a long climb back to favour." Emphasis on the long climb - but the journey has been much quicker for Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
