US embassy cables detail how staff and ministers fear ire of French president and warn of impact of personal lifestyle
Nicolas Sarkozy's advisers were so afraid of sparking his anger that they reportedly diverted his plane to avoid him seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up in the colours of the Turkish flag, according to a confidential note from the US ambassador in Paris.
A series of classified US memos depict the French president as a self-absorbed, thin-skinned, erratic character who tyrannises his ministers and staff. He is portrayed as undiplomatic, hyperactive, sometimes uncouth and in need of careful handling, despite being the most pro-US French president since the second world war and a brilliant political tactician.
A confidential memo to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, from ambassador Charles Rivkin in December 2009, said of Sarkozy: "Elysée contacts have reported to us the great lengths they will go to avoid disagreeing with him or provoking his displeasure – even recently reportedly rerouting the president's plane to avoid his seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up in Turkey's colours on the visit of PM [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan." Paris's Socialist mayor had turned the tower red and white in Erdogan's honour. Sarkozy is fiercely opposed to Turkish membership of the EU.
I'd love to know what Sarkozy's reaction was when he heard that Mustafa Barghuti was to be awarded the Légion d'honneur.
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