France's Diplomacy Play

By Bruce Crumley

Blessed are the peacemakers, but the First Couple of France may have had more political aims in engineering their dramatic accord with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The personal involvement of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia in freeing six medics who faced execution in Libya on trumped-up murder charges earned cheers from many. But it also generated grousing from E.U. officials who suggest Sarkozy cut in on their low-key negotiations with Tripoli in the final stretch to break the tape himself and get the credit.

In any case, it was just another sign of Sarkozy's results-focused approach to politics and his intent to raise France's profile in foreign affairs. He first pledged to concentrate on the prisoners' plight when he took office in May. Convicted of purposely infecting nearly 440 Libyan children with HIV in a Benghazi hospital, the medics--five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor--faced execution until Libya commuted the sentence to life in exchange for a $460 million compensation to victims' families. When further talks to get them out of Libya stalled, Sarkozy sent his wife to meet with Gaddafi--and to warn that Sarkozy could not see the legitimacy-starved Gaddafi on Sarkozy's most recent trip to Africa if the prisoners were still detained. That diplomatic carrot, along with promises to normalize E.U.-Libyan relations, got the medics on France's Bulgaria-bound presidential jet--alongside Cecilia--some 36 hours before Sarkozy's state visit to Tripoli began. There is an economic motive for France's power play as well: among the topics explored was how French companies could develop the Libyan economy better than their U.S., British or German rivals.