François Hollande Arrives in United States: No More 'Freedom Fries' as Obama Rolls Out Red Carpet

U.S. President Barack Obama welcomes his French counterpart
François Hollande to the U.S. at Andrews Air Force Base

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A decade after US-French relations hit rock-bottom, the first state visit by a French President for nearly 20 years is intended to demonstrate that ties have significantly improved, even if some strains remain

President Barack Obama is rolling out the diplomatic red carpet for his French counterpart, François Hollande, in a visible sign of improving Franco-US relations - which hit a nadir over France's refusal to support the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"We've come a long way from 'freedom fries'," a senior Obama administration official observed on Monday, ahead of a visit that will lavish personal attention on the French president – including a ride on Air Force One and a formal state dinner.

Mr Hollande touched down in the United States on Monday afternoon.

And he is in need of distraction from domestic tribulations that include his highly-publicised affair with a French actress and deep-seated economic problems that have made him the least popular French president in decades.

The White House was forced to pulp hundreds of invitations to Tuesday night's state dinner after Mr Hollande's break up with Valerie Trierweiler, his long-term girlfriend - who escaped to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius last week, where she was photographed relaxing in the sun. Read on and comment » | Peter Foster, in Washington and Rory Mulholland in Paris | Monday, February 10, 2014

Digitally Offended: Brazil President Cancels US Visit Over NSA Scandal

Brazil's president has called off her visit to the United States in response to Washington's refusal to take action against the NSA's surveillance practices. This comes after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the Latin American nation is being spied on by American operatives with personal communications from ordinary citizens, and even President Dilma Rousseff herself, being intercepted. RT's Marina Portnaya has the story.

Related »

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Calls Off US Trip

BBC: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to Washington next month in a row over allegations of US espionage.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused of intercepting emails and messages from Ms Rousseff, her aides and state oil company, Petrobras.

The allegations were based on documents leaked by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

President Barack Obama had promised to investigate the incident.

The White House said he had telephoned Ms Rousseff on Monday to discuss the matter.

The allegations of widespread espionage against Brazilian citizens were first published in July by Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the British Guardian newspaper.

Mr Greenwald alleged that the NSA accessed all internet content that Ms Rousseff had visited online. » | Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Pope Calls for Unity Against Same-Sex Marriage

ADVOCATE: Pope Benedict XVI called for Christians to unite behind the idea that marriage is between one man and one woman during a visit to Germany.

He described the Catholic Church's beliefs as facing a number of threats, and he included same-sex marriage on the list.

"Knowing, too, the value of family and marriage, we as Christians attach great importance to defending the integrity and the uniqueness of marriage between one man and one woman from any kind of misinterpretation," he said, according to the Associated Press. "Here the common engagement of Christians, including many Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians, makes a valuable contribution to building up a society equipped for the future." » | Lucas Grindley | Sunday, September 25, 2011

Pope Meets Abuse Victims During German Trip

REUTERS: Pope Benedict held a surprise meeting on Friday with victims of clerical sexual abuse and expressed his deep regret for their suffering, saying the church was committed to the protection of children, the Vatican said.

The private meeting came on the second day of Benedict's four-day trip to Germany, where record numbers of Catholics have officially left the faith in protest at clerical abuse, and where the Church faces some 600 requests for compensation.

The Pope was "moved and deeply shaken" and assured victims the Church was "committed to the promotion of effective measures to protect children," the Vatican said in a statement.

The meeting took place in a seminary in Erfurt, in eastern Germany, and was similar to those held by Benedict on other recent trips. The wording of the statement also mirrored those issued after previous meetings.

Victims' associations have said the Vatican has not done enough to bring the perpetrators to justice, a view echoed by German victims who joined 8,000 protesters on a march through Berlin, where the Pope began his visit.

Earlier on Friday the Pope visited the monastery where Martin Luther lived before launching the Reformation, and warned his Lutheran hosts that "a new form of Christianity" posed challenges to mainline Protestants and Catholics alike.

While not naming them, it was clear he was referring to the evangelical and Pentecostal churches which have spread rapidly, especially in developing countries, by attracting converts from more established churches.

He appealed for unity between Roman Catholics and Protestants, who began their split from the Catholic Church when Luther, who had lived in Erfurt as a Catholic monk, posted his 95 theses on a church door in 1517.

Few people turned out to see the pope in Erfurt, a Protestant city under tight security for the visit, but about 90,000 Catholics -- 40,000 more than expected -- flooded the nearby Catholic town of Etzelsbach [sic] for a vespers service.

Benedict told the Lutherans: "Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss.

"This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability. This worldwide phenomenon poses a question to us all: what is this new form of Christianity saying to us, for better and for worse?" » | Philip Pullella and Sarah Marsh | ERFURT, Germany | Friday, September 23, 2011

Mission Clarity: Pope Benedict's Blunt New World

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: It has been billed as Pope Benedict XVI's most difficult trip abroad to date. But so far in Germany, the pope has not sought to shy away from controversy. His bluntness has surprised many -- and could transform the visit into a rousing success.

The sky above Rome still had a reddish tint to it as the Alitalia Airbus took off from Ciampino airport at 8:15 a.m. on Thursday, carrying Pope Benedict XVI, several bishops and cardinals and close to 70 journalists on board.

It was the beginning of the pope's four-day visit to his homeland, his first state visit to Germany, and one that has already generated enormous interest in the country, particularly his Thursday afternoon address to the German parliament in Berlin. His core message in Germany is clear: Do not turn your backs on religion; do not turn your backs on the Catholic Church.

But the very first message he sought to communicate on his trip was addressed to his host country Italy. The pope sends a telegram to all heads of state over whose territory he flies when travelling abroad. In addition to the Austrian and Czech heads of state, the pope also wrote to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

"The moment in which I leave Italian territory is marked by my wish for an intensive ethical renewal for the good of my beloved Italy," he wrote. The message was difficult to misunderstand, a clear criticism of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the slow erosion of the country's values and financial stability over which he has presided. The message was all the more powerful coming as it did just days after the country's credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's. » | SPIEGEL Staff | Friday, September 23, 2011

Pope Benedict Meets Germany's Muslim Leaders
VATICAN RADIO: Pope Benedict met with members of Germany's Muslim community at the Apostolic Nunziature in Berlin on Friday. Below we publish the provisional text of his discourse:

Dear Muslim Friends,
I am glad to be able to welcome you here, as the representatives of different Muslim communities in Germany. From my heart I thank Professor Mouhanad Khorchide for his kind greeting. His words show me what a climate of respect and trust has grown up between the Catholic Church and the Muslim communities in Germany.

Berlin is a good place for a meeting like this, not only because the oldest mosque on German territory is located here, but also because Berlin has the largest Muslim population of all the cities in Germany.

From the 1970s onwards, the presence of numerous Muslim families has increasingly become a distinguishing mark of this country. Constant effort is needed in order to foster better mutual acquaintance and understanding. Not only is this important for peaceful coexistence, but also for the contribution that each can make towards building up the common good in this society.

Many Muslims attribute great importance to the religious dimension of life. At times this is thought provocative in a society that tends to marginalize religion or at most to assign it a place among the individual’s personal choices.

The Catholic Church firmly advocates that due recognition be given to the public dimension of religious adherence. In an overwhelmingly pluralist society, this demand is not unimportant. Care must be taken to guarantee that others are always treated with respect. Mutual respect grows only on the basis of agreement on certain inalienable values that are proper to human nature, in particular the inviolable dignity of every single person. Such agreement does not limit the expression of individual religions; on the contrary, it allows each person to bear witness explicitly to what he believes, not avoiding comparison with others.

In Germany – as in many other countries, not only Western ones – this common frame of reference is articulated by the Constitution, whose juridical content is binding on every citizen, whether he belong to a faith community or not. » | Friday, September 23, 2011

Pope Admits Church Contains 'Bad Fish' on Germany Visit
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pope Benedict XVI appealed to believers not to leave the Catholic Church as he arrived for a four-day visit to his native Germany.

The Pope said on the flight from Rome that he understood why some people – especially sex abuse victims and their loved ones – might say "this is no longer my Church".

But he urged Catholics to see the Church was made of both good and bad, and was struggling to right the wrongs committed in its ranks.

Germany has been rocked by the clerical sex scandals that have swept across Europe in the past two years.

"The Church is a net of the Lord that pulls in good fish and bad fish," he said. "We have to learn to live with the scandals and work against the scandals from inside the great net of the Church."

A record 181,000 German Catholics officially quit the Church last year.

The Church in Germany has received almost 600 requests for compensation for victims of sexual and physical abuse, while a victims' association estimates that more than 2,000 people were mistreated by Catholic priests in recent decades.

The Pope was met at the airport by Christian Wulff, the German president – a Catholic who has divorced and remarried in defiance of Church rules – and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In an interview published on Thursday, Mr Wulff said he hoped Benedict would loosen some of those rules. » | Thursday, September 22, 2011

Related links here, here, here, here, and here

Pope to Receive Hostile Welcome on Return Home to Germany
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Pope will receive a hostile reception from politicians, paedophile sex victims and gay groups when he arrives in Germany today on his first state visit to his homeland.

The pontiff left Rome on Thursday for the state visit. Even ordinary Catholics are expected to give him at best a lukewarm welcome when he lands in Berlin at the start of the four-day trip.

The shadow of Nazism will hang over an address that Benedict XVI, a former member of the Hitler Youth, will give in Berlin's Olympic stadium, where Adolf Hitler presided over the 1936 Games.

Germans were filled with pride in 2005 when the then Josef Ratzinger was elected the first German pope in nearly 1,000 years, but that enthusiasm has long since faded for many.

He was strongly condemned in 2009 for lifting the excommunication of Richard Williamson, a maverick British bishop who questioned the Holocaust, as well as his perceived inaction over priests who sexually abuse children.

The Bavarian-born pontiff's visit is likely to be marred by protests over his conservative doctrinal views on celibacy for priests and his opposition to admitting women to the Church.

Many Catholics in Germany, as well as in Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, are frustrated with the Vatican's resistance to moving with the times on such issues. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lien en relation avec l’article »

Verwandt »

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pope's visit to Germany is potential minefield: He may be heading home, but the Pope's visit to Germany is a potential minefield. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Thursday, September 22, 2011

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pope visit: German-speaking Catholics want reform from Rome: Pope Benedict XVI faces a clamour for change as he heads to Germany for his first state visit, with calls for reform on many fronts – from recognising gays to ordaining women to the priesthood. » | Thursday, September 22, 2011

Barack Obama Cuts Short Ireland Trip to Avoid Ash Cloud

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama arrives at Stanstead airport having cut short his visit to Ireland to avoid being grounded by volcanic ash.

The President was due to begin his state visit to Britain today but the huge plume of ash drifting across the Atlantic from Iceland forced him to amend his travel arrangements.

His schedule was hastily redrafted as the cloud from the Grímsvötn volcano drifted towards Scotland, leading to the cancellation of 36 flights.

The White House deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest, said: “Due to a recent change in the trajectory in the plume of volcanic ash, Air Force One will depart Ireland for London tonight. The schedule for tomorrow will proceed as planned.”

The three-day visit is launched with a joint newspaper article today in which Mr Obama and David Cameron rename the special relationship between Britain and America, the “essential relationship”, vital for world security and prosperity. » | David Millward, and Andrew Porter | Monday, May 23, 2011

Barack Obama's State Visit to Britain Hit by Splits over Libya

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Tensions over the military campaign against Libya have cast a cloud over President Barack Obama’s state visit to Britain this week, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Military and diplomatic sources in both Britain and the US are privately critical over the other side’s role in the action which has hit a damaging “stalemate” and left Colonel Muammar Gadaffi clinging to power.

Britain wants the US to take more of a defined role in the campaign, with UK military chiefs protesting that the effectiveness of bombing raids is being lessened by the absence of American leadership.

US diplomatic sources, meanwhile, have criticised Britain as a “skittish” and unpredictable ally which frequently issues a “red card” -- effectively vetoing a target, causing confusion and greatly hampering proper planning.

Mr Obama emphasised the differences between the two allies yesterday, describing the action against Libya as “limited” in a letter to US lawmakers.

Mr Cameron is expected to pass on the frustration over the lack of leadership from the US when he holds talks with Mr Obama at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, although Downing Street sources last night denied there were tensions.

Both London and Washington are keen to proclaim a new era for the “special relationship” between the two nations on the eve of the trip, which will see the president and his wife, Michelle, spend two nights in Britain, with the programme including a state banquet at Buckingham Palace and a speech by Mr Obama to both houses of parliament.

It will also feature a barbecue in No 10’s rose garden on Wednesday, hosted jointly by Samantha Cameron and Mrs Obama, which both leaders are expected to take time out of their schedules to attend. » | Patrick Hennessy, Philip Sherwell and Andrew Gilligan | Saturday, May 21, 2011

My comment:

Has it come to this? That the UK can't wage an effective war against a country like Libya without 'Big Daddy' helping in the background? Only seventy years ago, we could put up a damn good fight against the military might of the Third Reich – alone. Now, we can't take on even Qadhafi alone!

But for Cameron's vanity, we wouldn't have started a war against Libya anyway. We have no business being there. It is wrong to interfere in an internal revolution. That's what revolutions are all about: upheaval in the internal affairs of a nation. And as for all the crap about protecting civilians – sheer nonsense! Nato, the UK, and France have inflicted more pain and suffering on civilians than Qadhafi ever did.

Qadhafi is an evil man. Of that there is no doubt. But should we really have gone in there to 'sort them out' when we turn a blind eye to equally unpalatable atrocities in Bahrain and Syria, to name but two examples? Indeed, it was only yesterday that Cameron gave us a photo shoot of himself with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, the man some are calling the "torturer-in-chief". And boy, didn't Cameron look weak! And such hypocrisy! One thing is for sure: This is not the UK's "finest hour".

Lastly, whilst I have every respect for the US, and even though I frequently visit that fine country, I find it rather unacceptable, rather nauseating, that we have to look for US approval for everything. We have to follow their lead all the time, and follow their trends. Isn't it about time that the UK grew a backbone? – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Queen’s Trip Closes Chapter for Irish

The Queen Acknowledges 'Sad and Regrettable' Mistakes of Britain’s Troubled Relationship with Ireland

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Queen acknowledged the “sad and regrettable” mistakes of Britain’s troubled relationship with Ireland as she made one of the most important speeches of her reign in Dublin.

Although she stopped short of an outright apology for the “heartache, turbulence and loss” of the past century, the Queen said: “We can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.”

The landmark speech during a state dinner at Dublin Castle included a direct reference to the murder of the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, by the IRA, when the Queen said the “events have touched us all, many of us personally”.

But her overriding message was one of “forbearance and conciliation” as she spoke of being able “to bow to the past, but not be bound by it”.

The address to her host, President Mary McAleese, and guests including David Cameron, who joined the British delegation, was the Queen’s only speech of her historic four-day visit to Ireland.

The Queen began her speech by speaking in Gaelic, saying: “A hUachtarain [sic] agus a chaired [uachtarán agus cairde],” or president and friends, earning a warm round of applause. President McAleese was seen to respond by saying “wow”[.]

Dressed in a white silk crepe dress adorned with more than 2,000 hand-embroidered shamrocks and a harp made of crystals, the Queen said she and the Duke were “delighted to be here, and to experience at first hand Ireland’s world-famous hospitality”.

She said the two nations were “good neighbours” which had “much to celebrate”, including the economic and cultural ties “that make us firm friends and equal partners”. » |Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Queen Visits British Massacre Site

The Queen in Ireland
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Queen is making a four-day visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch in 100 years, in the shadow of threats by dissident republicans.
Photograph: The Daily Telegraph
Follow the event live

Britain's Queen to Visit Ireland
Britain's Queen is set to make a groundbreaking but sensitive visit to the Republic of Ireland. A British monarch's first trip to Ireland puts the police on alert after a dissident Irish group warned of a bomb attack in London. Andrew Simmons reports.

Pope Visit: Cardinal Drops Out After Calling UK 'Third World'
THE TELEGRAPH: Cardinal Walter Kasper, a senior aide to the Pope, has pulled out of the Pontiff's visit to Britain after saying the country resembled a “Third World country” where “aggressive new atheism” is rife.



Although officials insisted that the 77 year-old had dropped out of the trip for medical reasons, as he had been ill “for some days”, his comments represent another embarrassing PR blunder for the Roman Catholic church at a critical time.

The[y] are all the more embarrassing because the Cardinal's position makes him responsible for promoting Christian unity around the world.

The Vatican, the hierarchy in England and Wales and the government are all desperate for the first-ever state papal visit to Britain to be a success.

The preparations for the Pope's arrival have suffered a number of setbacks and thousands of tickets remain unsold for the large open-air Masses.

Meanwhile secular groups have led protests against the £10million cost of the trip at a time of public sector cuts, and survivors of clergy abuse are angry that the Pope will be greeted by the Queen today at the start of a full state visit when the worldwide church stands accused of covering up the activities of paedophile priests.

Cardinal Kasper’s presence will also be missed during Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain as he is seen as more liberal than his fellow German, as well as an expert on ecumenical dialogue.

The cardinal’s abrupt withdrawal from the trip prompted speculation in Rome that it was linked to an interview he gave this week to a German news magazine, Focus.

In an article headlined “A Third World country” he was quoted as saying: “When you arrive at Heathrow you think at times that you’ve landed in a Third World country.”

His secretary, Mgr Oliver Lahl, said the remark was a reference to the diverse, multi-cultural population of Britain, which the Cardinal has visited three times in recent years.

Cardinal Kasper, who recently retired as the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity having headed it since 2001, said that Britain was a “secular and pluralist” country in which there was a “distance from God”, noting that there was “a crisis of faith” in much of the West. >>> Nick Squires in Rome and Martin Beckford | Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Cardinal Walter Kasper was spot-on in his appraisal of the United Kingdom: it does indeed resemble a Third World country in many places, especially when one arrives in Heathrow. The Cardinal need feel no shame for what he said; he was merely speaking the Gospel truth. And most British people I know would agree with him – wholeheartedly. They wouldn’t have given this country away; it was the idea of the political élite. – © Mark

MAIL ONLINE: Key Pope aide pulls out of British tour after calling UK a 'Third World' nation >>> Nick Pisa | Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Pope Deserves Better from Britain
THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Benedict XVI is a serious man whose message risks being drowned out by misguided noise, argues Michael Burleigh.

Pope Benedict in Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. Photo: The Telegraph
”There cannot be a "dialogue" with Islam until there is meaningful reciprocity of such religious freedoms as the right to open places of worship or to convert without fear of death. To underline that, Benedict used St Peter's Basilica to receive the Italian Muslim convert Magdi Allam into the faith.” – Michael Burleigh
The two Bush presidents liked to refer to themselves as "41" and "43" in a democratic succession that goes back to George "1" Washington in 1789. This country is about to receive Benedict XVI who, were he vulgarly inclined, could highlight that he is "265" in an apostolic succession that originated with Christ's commission to St Peter.

Under normal circumstances, one might say "welcome" rather than "receive". But the multiple sexual scandals that have afflicted parts of the Catholic Church have created a window of opportunity for sundry chasers of limelight – including human rights militants, crusading gays, Islamist fanatics, and celebrity God-botherers – to band together to "arrest" the Pope under laws so obscure that few knew they existed. Because child abuse is involved, rather than the more widespread phenomenon of homosexual predation on young men, these manifestations will receive much media attention, especially from the BBC, to the guaranteed perplexity of a less involved general public in a nominally Protestant country. It will require some effort of mind to tune out this noise to hear what the Pope will be saying.

The stations of Josef Ratzinger's life are almost guaranteed to make unthinking liberals recoil, just as his classical European erudition does not sit well with a local culture that has taken irony and philistinism to levels whose self-satisfied provincialism are not hard to parody. Britain may be bankrupt, but we have "comedians" aplenty.

As a 14 year-old, the future Pope was conscripted into the Hitler Youth, along with the majority of his age cohort. That year, 1941, one of his cousins, who had Down's syndrome, was murdered in the Nazis' monstrous "euthanasia" campaign. As the Nazis ran out of cannon fodder, even young seminarians were drafted into such tasks as manning anti-aircraft batteries, which Ratzinger did in the years before he briefly entered Allied captivity.

That typical German experience made Ratzinger especially receptive to the Church's multiple condemnations of totalitarianism, perhaps nowhere better expressed than in Pius XI's 1937 encyclical "With burning anxiety". Rabid anticlericalism and credulity towards the wonder-working state was the common denominator between 19th-century liberalism and the totalitarian creeds of the 20th century. Starting with the Russian Bolsheviks, followed by revolutionary Mexico and Spain, the progressively murderous Left sought to wipe out the Christian churches, which were sometimes intimately associated with inequitable social orders. Ironically, the late 19th-century papacy of Leo XIII had been in the forefront of demanding that industrial workers receive their due dignity and respect.

Both Communism and Nazism inaugurated what Churchill accurately described as "man worship" while the state barged its way into such spheres as the family and education, usually through dedicated youth organisations of the kind Ratzinger was impressed into. Although the Pope is not a political animal, there can be little doubt that he was influenced by that remarkable generation of post-war Christian Democrat leaders, such as Adenauer or De Gasperi, who did so much to restore the self-confidence of a continent turned into a desert of despair by totalitarianism.

As a distinguished academic theologian, Ratzinger was again exposed to the rabidly intolerant Left during a spell at the University of Tübingen in the 1960s. Whereas it would be axiomatic to an apprentice cobbler or mechanic that a master craftsman knew his trade, campus Marxists imagined that their dogmas explained both the entirety of history and all human knowledge. Entire disciplines had either to be re-forged in accordance with their materialist creed or considered redundant. Read on and comment >>> Michael Burleigh | Wednesday, 15, 2010

My comment as it appears on The Telegraph:

A truly wonderful article. Thank you.

I believe that we should welcome Pope Benedict XVI as warmly as we can. For your information, I am not a Roman Catholic.

In my opinion, Pope Benedict XVI is a wonderful man, a scholar in the true sense, a man of erudition, a learned man. He is also an aesthete.

For me, it is a privilege to welcome this pope to our shores. It is to be hoped that the ridiculous crowd will not embarrass the British people by trying to pull stunts. I hope they'll go to the pub for a pint instead.

Pope Benedict XVI is a man of great dignity. He should be treated accordingly. – © Mark

David Cameron’s welcome message >>>

Saudi Secrets (October 2007)

Dear Ma’am…

Photo of the Carla Sarkozy courtesy of Google Images
TIMES ONLINE: What can the Queen expect when President Sarkozy and his new wife visit this month? Here is how she would be briefed by her Paris ambassador

The President of France and his new première dame are arriving for their first state visit on March 26. In preparation for greeting them, your majesty would be advised to forget everything about the last two such visits, by Monsieur Chirac in 1996 and 2004. Nicolas Sarkozy wields the same near-absolute power as his predecessors but he and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are unlike previous incumbents of the republican monarchy.

Under the President, who is also known as Super Sarko or Speedy, decorum and discretion has given way at the Elysée Palace to a style that might be described as “in one's face”. One example of the new, unceremonial manner could be seen in Monsieur Sarkozy's decision in late February to curtail his stay as your guest by one day.

M Sarkozy, a man who is sensitive about his modest physical stature, has sought to “shake up” his country and dazzle his citizens with a constant display of activity and personal success. This has caused less charitable sections of the press to name him Président Bling Bling and le Président Pipole, or what our tabloid press might call the Celeb Prez.

Among the most spectacular of M Sarkozy's achievements in ten months in office has been his marriage to Madame Bruni Tedeschi, a “supermodel” from a wealthy Turin family who has lately made a name on the Continent as a chanteuse in the “pop-folk” style.

Unlike M Sarkozy, who speaks only a few words of English and is not familiar with our customs, Madame Sarkozy is fluent in both. The 40-year-old First Lady has an intimate understanding of our ways from past close friendships with some of your more famous subjects. These include Sir Mick Jagger of the “Rolling Stones” group and Mr Eric Clapton, a guitarist-singer. We understand from Mr Clapton's recent memoirs that his friendship with Sir Mick, who was married at the time to Miss Jerry Hall, suffered from their competition for the favours of the young Signorina Bruni.

The Sarkozys' wedding, conducted in secret in February, was remarkable in several ways. It was celebrated only two months after the couple met at the home of an advertising executive, and only three months after Cécilia Sarkozy, the second wife, ended her marriage with the President against his wishes. At the time, he was described by friends as “devastated” and he mourned his departed wife by wearing his wedding ring for a month.

Mme Bruni-Sarkozy, who moves with the well-off Bohemian set of the Left Bank, is a supporter of left-wing causes. She had disapproved publicly of “Sarko's” populist politics and had even told British newspapers that she did not much care for the French as a whole. It is true that she had long “wanted a man with his finger on the nuclear button”, as she put it. However, she also cherished her freedom to replace her consorts at will. Only last year, she regretted to a journalist that no man excited her senses for more than three weeks: “I am a tamer of men, a cat, an Italian. Monogamy bores me terribly,” she told Le Figaro newspaper. “I prefer polygamy and polyandry.” The last term refers to a lady who enjoys conjugal companionship with more than one man at a time.

It was with relief that France heard from Mme Bruni-Sarkozy last month (February) that she intends to remain with her new husband “jusqu'à la mort” - until death. M Sarkozy has also reassured his citizens that “With Carla, it's serious.” While Mr Sarkozy may have decided to shorten his stay at Windsor, his new wife has expressed her eager anticipation over the visit. She was asked how she felt about being your majesty's guest. She replied with one word: grisant - thrilling.

Here is a little background on each. PRESIDENT SARKOZY >>> By Charles Bremner

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)