French soldiers stand still as the Sengalese is raised and the French flag lowered at the French military camp of Bel Air in Dakar
Whether it's down to personal nature or because it's required by their job, diplomats tend to be tactful, discreet and cautiously mindful of the political hierarchy they serve. That's one reason why eyes are popping at statements by France's exiting ambassador to Senegal, Jean-Christophe Rufin, who has described his titular boss Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner as a "completely marginalized" and irrelevant figure, one who is totally ignored by diplomatic advisers to President Nicolas Sarkozy. Worse still, Rufin describes the Quai d'Orsay as a "damaged ministry" whose domestic staff and global network of emissaries "are in complete disarray," struggling to cope with successive waves of austerity cuts as they watch the presidency confiscate full control of foreign policy management. The upshot, he and other critics say, is a French diplomatic establishment once respected worldwide now in tatters.
Rufin's controversial comments came a week after the end of his three-year posting to Dakar — a stretch that gave him an African perspective from which to witness what he sees as the virtual hijacking of wider French foreign policy by the Elysée. Despite the presidency's appropriation of much of what has traditionally been Quai d'Orsay purview, Rufin says Sarkozy has failed to fulfill one of the main objectives he stated in taking office: swapping France's historically conniving dealings with authoritarian and corrupt African leaders — a relationship known as Françafrique — for open, healthy ties with France's former colonies. Rather than Paris placing at the heart of its foreign policy in Africa an insistence on respect for democracy, human rights, and the use of national wealth for purposes other than leaders' personal gain — as Sarkozy's pledged — Rufin says the old, shadowy, compromising, cynical habits of trading political and business favors has just gotten more manipulative and opaque.
"I sincerely thought we were entering a period of rupture with past practice," Rufin told Senegalese radio station RFM on July 4, referring to Sarkozy's promises to dump the Françafrique relations that extend back to de Gaulle and establish principled diplomacy — a promise that led Rufin to accept the ambassador posting in the first place. "I'm not bitter, but disappointed for the hopes we had," he said.
The reason: Rufin says Paris instead continues to reap the economic and political benefits obtained in dealing with former colonies as banana republics — only now with local lobbyists and Elysée advisers running things, having sidelined diplomats and Foreign Affairs Ministry officials. As part of that process, Rufin has said in multiple statements to French media, Claude Guéant, secretary general of Sarkozy's presidential staff, has taken over on French foreign policy and reduced foreign minister Kouchner to a diplomatic figurehead simply rubber stamping Guéant's decisions.
"Guéant is running everything [despite] having neither the experience nor competence," in foreign affairs, Rufin told French radio station RTL on July 6. In an interview with le Monde the previous day, Rufin also noted that — unlike diplomats and foreign ministry officials — Guéant doesn't seem to be accountable to anyone for the moves he makes on behalf of the nation. "[He's] got all the more freedom of movement in that he answers neither to parliament, nor to the government," Rufin said of Sarkozy's appointee. "He's accountable to the President alone, and I don't know if [Sarkozy] is completely informed of the initiatives of his collaborator."
Kouchner — who co-founded the humanitarian Médecins Sans Frontières of which Rufin later served as vice president — responded to Rufin's criticisms by rejecting the charge that he or the ministry had been become obsolete in foreign policy. He also said he hoped Rufin "doesn't choke on his hatred" — an allusion to the ex-ambassador's long-running dispute with Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade. Rufin doesn't contest that his tense relationship with Wade was the cause of his eviction, but he does argue that it arose from him putting Sarkozy's pledges to dump Françafrique in action, by repeating France's concerns over the rife corruption in Senegal and Wade's plans to install his son Karim as his successor.
Thus far, neither Sarkozy nor Guéant have responded to Rufin's comments. Instead, they have allowed Kouchner to refute the former ambassador's claims vocally and in a July 8 op-ed piece in le Monde — something that some pundits regarded as confirmation that the minister has merely become a gofer while the Elysée focuses on the real work of foreign policy. Elsewhere, however, Rufin have gotten an unexpected assist in his complaints from two unlikely partners: conservative Alain Juppé and Socialist Hubert Védrine, both ex-foreign affairs ministers. In a co-authored July 6 editorial in le Monde, Juppé and Védrine also expressed concern over France's depleted diplomatic structure and capacities. Successive budget cuts and staff reductions, they argue, have had "a devastating effect" on France's diplomatic apparatus, and taken it "to the breaking point, which is visible everywhere in the world [and which] all our partners have noticed." Not only has that seriously undermined France's stature and influence in global affairs, they argue, but also leaves it vulnerable to being overtaken by emerging forces like China and Brazil. And though they did not fault Sarkozy and Guéant by name, Juppé and Védrine's gaze follows that of Rufin: directly at the Elysée.