When Ségolène Royal met a Hizbullah MP in Beirut last month, her relatively limited experience of foreign affairs almost caused an international incident. Ali Ammar told the French Socialists' presidential candidate that the Bush administration suffered from "unlimited dementia". He also attacked what he called modern-day "nazism" in Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post, Ms Royal was unfazed. "I agree with a lot of things you have said, notably your analysis of the United States," she replied.
Amid the ensuing outcry Ms Royal explained she was speaking only of US policy in Iraq and had not heard the MP's remarks about Israel. All the same, the unguarded exchange raised eyebrows in Paris and Tel Aviv. It also remains unclear whether Ms Royal realised that Ali Ammar was also the name by which the legendary Algerian guerrilla Ali La Pointe was known. He made his name fighting French colonial forces in the vicious battle of Algiers.
As with domestic policy, Ms Royal has so far largely avoided getting into specifics about France's future role in the world. But it is clear that she is no Angela Merkel. The German chancellor moved quickly in 2005 to mend fences with Washington flattened by her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. Ms Royal seems disinclined to distance herself from President Jacques Chirac's anti-Americanism.
"Since General De Gaulle, France has always embodied a certain pride and independence vis-a-vis the United States," she said in a television debate. "We absolutely cannot accept the concept of preventive war, nor the concept of good versus evil, nor disengagement in the Middle East, nor the Americans preaching economic liberalism abroad and practising protectionism at home. We cannot tolerate their refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty when they are the world's No 1 polluter."
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