New head of French diplomacy, Alain Juppe, formally took office on Tuesday during a handover with Michèle Alliot-Marie, who made him an indispensable stimulus to government action internationally as on the domestic scene.
On this occasion, Mr. Juppe has drawn in broad strokes his highest priorities, particularly those relating to changes in the Arab world. It must, he believes so, launch the Union for the Mediterranean, the large project from start to mandate Nicolas Sarkozy.
"We will have to rebuild the Union for the Mediterranean. It was a prescient initiative," he said about this forum for cooperation between the EU and the Maghreb and the Middle East."What is happening today in the southern Mediterranean is completely changing. We need to think about it," he added.
At 65, Alain Juppe became the centerpiece of the government while Mr.Sarkozy seeks to give a hand to a little over a year of presidential elections, according to the vagaries of diplomacy unable to gauge the wind of liberty through the Arab world.
At a time when Paris took the lead in the forums of G20 and G8, diplomacy has become a domestic policy issue.
"Providential man" or "savior", the press has broadly welcomed Tuesday with kindness and relief the arrival of Alain Juppe at the Quai d'Orsay, hoping that France's voice is heard again after weeks of strong criticism on the proximity of Paris with authoritarian regimes.
Already No. 2 in the government, Mr.Juppe spent Tuesday morning over the reins of the Ministry of Defence in Gerard Longuet, former leader of UMP senators.
An hour later, he moved to the Quai d'Orsay, following a handover with Michèle Alliot-Marie, who resigned under pressure Sunday, when she was only three months for Foreign Affairs.
The minister finally falling after statements denounced as scandalous by the opposition, especially for suggesting the "expertise" of the French police in the middle of the Tunisian regime repression of the uprising in January, and for his ties revealed by Press with a businessman close to the ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Alain Juppe found a ministry where he has already noticed a shift from 1993 to 1995 before becoming Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.
The new Minister also referred in his first speech, the strengthening of partnerships with emerging countries, European defense and Africa: "(...) We must anticipate the development of Africa in the twenty-first century. This would be a mistake for us to relax our strategic presence on this continent with so many ties which have been constructed throughout history "
Mr.Juppe will also restore confidence APRIS diplomats who expressed in anonymous forums their concerns about the "amateur" or "fear of change" manifested in the French diplomacy.
According to a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday, 55% of French make it "somewhat confident" as the new chief diplomat.
At 14 months of the presidential election, Mr. Juppe made figure of recourse to the right while Mr. Sarkozy is still struggling in the polls.
In accepting the Quai d'Orsay, he demanded a free hand over to the Elysee and intends to keep his freedom of speech, particularly on social issues such as the debate on the place of Islam, which it has multiplied warnings.
