Quotes of the Day

Given the diplomatic fires France has to contend with these days — the ongoing spat with the U.S. over Iraq; the squabbling between "new" and "old" Europe; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial visit to Paris last week; and the morass in former colony Ivory Coast — it's ironic that the man assigned to extinguish those blazes is known as Nero at home. French Foreign Minister Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin has a talent for inflaming passions, but President Jacques Chirac is relying on the 49-year-old statesman to douse any flames before they get out of control.

Like his mentor Chirac, the bookish and cerebral De Villepin has a reputation as an irrepressible "doer." While such drive — some say impetuousness — has produced results for De Villepin in the past, it has already created some major controversies during his 10-month ministry. His personal involvement in the political crisis in Madagascar last July was credited with averting a looming civil war. However, De Villepin's similar attempts at shuttle diplomacy in the Ivory Coast produced a period of increased instability and violence. It has since begun to calm — but that still leaves France the common enemy of nearly all belligerents in the former colony. In addresses to the U.N. on Iraq, De Villepin's eloquence generated applause — but only after earlier theatrics had unleashed fury from what seemed like every American politician and pundit alive.

The Morocco-born son of a French industrialist and politician, De Villepin was raised in South America, the U.S. and Europe. As a young adult he worked his way through France's élite Ecole Nationale d'Administration, and from 1980-95 he held a variety of ministerial and embassy positions — including a five-year stint at the French embassy in Washington, where he perfected his English and came to appreciate American society and culture. An author himself, De Villepin's speeches are often crowded with literary references that dazzle and at times confound audiences.

While De Villepin's looks — tall (1.92 m), athletic, shock of salt-and-pepper-hair, and handsome, perma-tanned face — lend him a Kennedyesque allure, his lofty airs and legendarily short fuse have rattled and offended a host of collaborators and foreign colleagues. "De Villepin's aristocratic upbringing, international exposure and privileged education have produced the miracle diplomat capable of pissing anyone off, regardless of nationality or political affiliation," says one influential member of Chirac's conservative parliamentary majority. That might be a strength. "Dominique has a personality and character that has inspired strong reaction from some," defends an Elysée official, "but he's a loyal and valuable diplomat, and the President depends heavily on him."

That reliance isn't new. First recruited as a speech writer in 1980 for then-Paris mayor Chirac, De Villepin became chief of staff after proving instrumental in Chirac's successful 1995 presidential bid. As the shadow master of the Chirac Elysée, De Villepin influenced governmental policy and conservative politics, and is credited by some for inspiring many of Chirac's best moves and reversing the President's worst setbacks. Some reports claim De Villepin also ran a covert office to exploit embarrassment and scandal hindering both leftist opponents and conservatives who'd fallen from grace. De Villepin and the Elysée emphatically deny those reports.

Less debatable, however, was De Villepin's central role in Chirac's catastrophic 1997 move to dissolve Parliament and hold new elections, expected to reinforce his conservative majority. Instead, the left was swept to power, Chirac was condemned to a five-year power-sharing "cohabitation" with the government of Lionel Jospin, and De Villepin earned the nickname Nero for playing with fire and getting burned. Despite vindictive calls from conservative detractors and pressure from Chirac's wife to sack De Villepin, the President not only stood by his chief of staff but named him to head French diplomacy following Chirac's re-election and the right's legislative rout last spring.

The adversity and insults from the U.S. and within Europe arising from the Iraq debate are nothing new to De Villepin, and the common front he has formed with Chirac to withstand them have brought the tight colleagues even closer. Indeed, if the Iraq crisis plays to France's advantage, some say De Villepin could ultimately be rewarded with the Prime Minister's job. Critics say De Villepin's ambition leads him to dream even higher: exiting the role as Chirac's most trusted adviser to become his heir apparent. It will depend on whether he can stay unsinged under fire.

• BRUCE CRUMLEY | Paris
• 'Nero' gets the task of dampening the flames