"The Quai d'Orsay is instinctively pro-China, pro-Russia, pro-Germany, anti-British and anti-American”

“The Quai d'Orsay is instinctively pro-China, pro-Russia, pro-Germany, anti-British and anti-American,” said one adviser before the election. “He will have to sit on them hard to take control.”

Thus spoke an adviser to Bernard Kouchner.

A contempt for knee-jerk French anti-Americanism also unites the two men. Mr Sarkozy has called America “the greatest democracy in the world”, and denounced the “arrogance” (if not substance) of France's hostility to war in Iraq. Mr Kouchner was one of the few Frenchmen to see merit in the Iraq intervention, though he criticised its aftermath. Both would hope for better Franco-American relations, which soured after 2003 (though Mr Sarkozy has no plans yet for an official trip). One plus is the choice of Jean-David Levitte, France's ex-ambassador to America, as Mr Sarkozy's national security adviser.