Claude Guéant - "a minister whispering into the ear of France's far-right Front National"

Not a day seems to go by without the recently-appointed interior minister Claude Guéant making a remark which many are interpreting as an attempt to reach out to potential voters of the far-right Front National (FN).

"He's a minister whispering into the ear of the Front National," is how one prominent Socialist party politician, Jean-Marc Ayrault, described Guéant's latest comments about the need to prevent anyone using the country's services from wearing religious symbols.

Yes Guéant is at it again.

Claude Guéant (screenshot from i>Télé interview)

In the space of a week he has made remarks that have angered the opposition Socialist party - and many others - worried some within his own party, confused and surprised those who've worked close to him over the years and provided a platform for the FN to expound its policies.

After "the French not feeling at home in France" and praising Sarkozy for "leading the crusade in Libya" comes the latest in what some see as a direct appeal to those tempted to vote for the FN.

This time it was the suggestion that religious symbols should be banned in all public services - not only for those working in them, but also those using them.

"Obviously anyone working in a public service shouldn't wear a religious symbols or show any religious preference," he said in an interview on the news and current affairs channel i>Télé on Thursday.

"Nor should those using them," he added.

Guéant tried to cover himself somewhat by saying later that he had mainly been talking about hospitals and in particular cases in which women didn't want to be seen by male doctors.

But as had happened on the previous day with his "crusade" comment, the reactions came thick and fast and once again Guéant was flavour of the day in terms of news reporting.

Most telling of all the reactions though is from someone who knows Guéant well, and indeed worked alongside him for eight years.

Interviewed on Friday morning's news magazine La Matinale on Canal +, Abderahmane Dahmane, president of the democrates musulmans de france and until recently a special advisor to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy in charge of diversity, said he was as confused as anyone by Guéant's remarks.

"I have the impression that the sky is falling in on them," he said in reference to Guéant and Sarkozy, both of whom he said he still considered friends.

"In eight years of working together I never heard a word uttered by Claude Guéant that could annoy anyone. He was always the go-between, the moderator," he continued.

"But now, I don't understand why he's saying what he is. What purpose does it serve?"

Indeed.

And where is Sarkozy in all of this?

All right so he's currently playing "King of the World" as leader of the G20, G8 and the "crusade" against Libya.

But he's also a man used to meddling in all aspects of domestic affairs as he sees fit and reining in ministers whenever they're deemed to be overstepping the mark.

Sarkozy has been strangely quiet.

Perhaps part of the answer for Guéant's apparent change in behaviour and Sarkozy's silence comes in those cantonal elections on Sunday.

Oh yes and there's that debate on laicity set by the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) for April 5, which the leader of the party Jean-François Copé is organising to "discuss religious practice in France - including Islam - and its compatibility with the country's secular laws."

But there is of course also Sarkozy's poor showing in the opinion polls, the rise of in popularity of the FN leader Marine Le Pen and the fear that some UMP supporters will be attracted to her and her party's policies when it comes to next year's presidential elections.

Recent polls suggest that Sarkozy might not even make it past the first round of those elections.

Has he "unleashed" Guéant on France in an attempt to win over that far-right vote?

Sure looks that way - whatever anyone else is saying - or not saying.

An iceberg in Paris

Anyone in the French capital on Tuesday might have done something of a double take as they passed along the river Seine.

Because not far away from the city's world-famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, they would have seen an iceberg.

It was, of course, not a natural phenomenon, but a 16-metre one constructed by the environmental organisation Greenpeace, and was meant to serve as a timely reminder to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and other world leaders that global warming and climate are issues that need to be tackled.

Timely as well as symbolic, because it came as Sarkozy, along with United States president, Barack Obama, Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and leaders of Britain, Canada, Germany Italy and Japan along with European Union representatives were preparing to meet in L'Aquilia, Italy for the G8 summit which opens on Wednesday.

At the base of the structure, Greenpeace had also placed placards reading "Sarkozy : climate leadership now!" and "G8 : climate leadership now!", once again a call for leaders to show action to back up their promises as far as the environmental organisation was concerned.

And the director of Greenpeace, France, Pascal Husting, had few words of praise for the "efforts" of the French president, who has made environmental issues a centrepiece of his domestic political agenda.

"Nicolas Sarkozy has made a number of speeches and claims to be the champion in the battle against global warming," he said in a statement.

"But he has so far failed to show the political will to really do anything about it."

Husting also insisted that Europe could "and should" take the lead in the battle against global warming "in light of the current inability of the Barack Obama, to fulfil that role."

Climate change will be one of the issues topping the agenda during the G8 summit, and many environmental experts expect leaders to make their strongest statement yet on global warming with an agreement that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 50 per cent by 2050.

Once again heavy on the symbolism perhaps, the Greenpeace iceberg is due to be taken down on Wednesday, the day the G8 opens.

Sarkozy's G8 ennui

He was bored, the poor man. You coul see it in his eyes and his body language. Miles away from home in a country he's not madly keen on, talking the talk and little else with a bunch of other G8 leaders.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, didn't really enjoy himself at this year's G8 yak-fest in Hokkaido, Japan, if French commentators are to be believed.

There was certainly none of the buoyancy or tactile back slapping of last year when Sarkozy floated into Heiligendamm, Germany on his presidential cloud, fresh from an electoral victory and smiled away as he handed over his mobile 'phone for then Russian president, Vladimir Putin to have a chat.

Instead he was rather low-key with his efforts thwarted from the outset.

He mooted the idea of increasing the whole shebang from a G8 to a G13 to include some of the other major world economies. But nobody else in the Old Boy's (and one Girl's) club seemed to be up for it.

So bang went Sarkozy's big idea. And India, China, Brazil and others will have to wait their turn until the rest of the leaders actually wake up to the fact that they probably can't continue meeting to make no decisions without some of the world's other major players. Or there again perhaps they can. Clearly Sarkozy is and was in the minority on this.

Most of the other leaders turned up at Hokkaido with their better halves among their entourage. Not so Sarkozy, as Carla stayed behind poutingly putting the final touches to her third album, due for release in a couple of weeks time.

Equally important for Sarkozy of course was how the G8 was playing back home in France. Simple, it wasn't - well not very much. Apart from the time difference, which always puts a bit of a dampener on these things in terms of news reporting, nobody was really interested.

Ingrid's still in town, the Tour de France wheeled into action last weekend and there's "real" work to be done back where Sarkozy thinks he knows he's needed.

There's the launch of the Mediterranean Union in Paris next weekend, with a fair number of Middle East leaders pitching up followed by Bastille Day celebrations to enjoy.

There's his first address as EU Big Cheese to the European parliament in Strasbourg to be delivered. France has just taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.

There's a country to run and a whole continent to be knocked into shape, and instead Sarkozy has been banging heads and getting nowhere fast as far as he's concerned.

Sure the G8 may have renewed their commitment to reduce global emissions, but that won't really have grabbed many people's imaginations back home in France, a country which has invested heavily over the years in low/non (choose your camp, choose your definition) carbon-emitting nuclear power.

And even though they called for "swift action" on oil prices which they've - surprise, surprise - realised are "having a negative impact on the world," Sarkozy was still left wondering where the oil producers had been in the discussion.

Then of course there was the food thing. While his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, never passed up an opportunity for a trip to the Far East and relished his time there, Sarkozy is in contrast the most American of French presidents (as is often pointed out in the press) and there's nothing he reportedly enjoys more than a burger and fries.

Quite how he managed to brave his way through a shoeless meal of sushi and sashimi leaves the imagination somersaulting.

No, by Sarkozy's action man, power-packed, let's get things done standards, Hokkaido won't have perked his spirits much.

Perhaps though he had the chance to wheedle out of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi a blueprint for taking over a country's media. Maybe he's done some behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing with Russia's recently elected president, Dmitri Medvedev. Or better still come up with a plan to resolve the "Irish-EU-Lisbon no" problem with Britain's EU-ponderous prime minister Gordon Brown.

Who knows? Roll on G8 2009 in La Maddelena, Italy, Carla's country of birth.

Pressing the flesh

We all know how much politicians enjoy the round of hand pumping, back slapping, lip smacking, baby holding photo ops when they’re out there campaigning among we mere mortals, but heavens, it seems to have spillt over into high-powered love fests.

Welcome to the world of Touchy Feely G8 leaders. And once again the French are taking the lead in this refreshingly modern open-collared diplomacy. New boy Nic endearingly has invaded everybody’s personal space in that most Mediterranean of ways. He was spotted stroking Blair on the arm, planting his now customary greeting kiss on Merkel’s cheeks and even getting tactile with Bush as they gently brushed arms.

And he seemed to be getting downright too chummy with Putin – remember the geezer who waited two days before getting on the blower to congratulate him in May when he won the election.

Leaving politics aside, the burning question on everybody’s lips here in France is just who was on the ‘phone when Nic was seen strolling along with Vlad.

Grins galore (on the French side), Gr8 eye contact as the two men meander down the road mobile ‘phone pressed briefly against Our Esteemed Leader’s ear and then he passes it to a slightly startled fellow Head of State.

So…. to start with, who the heck among the French entourage speaks Russian? And more intriguingly who exactly was on the other end of the line and what did they say?

The political love-in over the past couple of days has certainly offered the opportunity to ponder some disjointed and not-so-interesting observations.

Bush apparently wants any future international agreements or frameworks (poor man can’t decide which) on climate control to be UN-led……that’ll be a first for him. Up until now he hasn’t really shown much enthusiasm for multilateral decisions. And Bless Him for claiming to protect the interests of India and China. They’ll be pleased won’t they?

Meanwhile Putin clearly called the US’s bluff by offering to use a radar system in Azerbaijan to develop a shield to detect incoming missiles from those rogue states who make up the Axes of Weasels. By the way, does he ever smile?

As the Magnificent 9 (clearly Barroso just can’t be kept away from a party) ambled along in pairs in the sunny Baltic resort of Heiligendamm. (just couldn’t resist a bit of journalese there) why did nobody appear to be talking to Abe?

Is it possible that Prodi has the same hairdresser as Bernadette Chirac? That’s some thatch there on his bonce. It’s hard not to be envious.

With water already one of the world’s most valuable commodities, how (in)appropriate was it for the kindly German police to point their cannons at those terribly nice protesters in an attempt to blast them to Kingdom come.

And a free eco-friendly McDo to anyone who can name the Canadian prime minister (without Googling I might add).