For years the French authorities dragged their heels in sharing information with international investigators about suspected Rwandan génocidaires on French soil but under President Nicolas Sarkozy and even more so under President Emmanuel Macron France's stance towards Rwanda has undergone a 180-degree pivot and Paris now strongly supports President Paul Kagame (AC Vol 58 No 20 Justice and jurisdictions)...
Conakry also played host to a series of more democratically inclined old friends including Tony Blair and two former French presidents: François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy who had reportedly brokered the truce between Condé's government and the Israel-based minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz after a protracted battle over the unexplored iron ore reserves in Guinea's remote southeast (AC Vol 60 No 5 A surprise reunion)...
Yet this settlement which was brokered by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy may have been worth as little as $50 million AC understands...
Vincent Bolloré's friendship with the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been well documented (AC Vol 48 No 10 L'Avenir c'est Sarko)...
Vol 59 No 7 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
Farnaud found himself out of favour after Nicolas Sarkozy a fierce De Villepin rival won the 2007 elections...
His campaign headquarters in a plush office in the capital was staffed by consultants from Agence Publics a Paris public relations firm which counts French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy among its former clients and Shaviv Consulting which worked for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his re-election in 2015...
The affair gave rise to jokes on social media claiming that French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy would surely also ask for Ivorian citizenship when he visits the country in March...
Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was there as were Chinese Ambassador Bian Jianqiang Three Gorges President Wang Lin and Jean-Louis Borloo a minister under French President Nicolas Sarkozy...
One dates the problems back to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy who opened up discussion about an Azawad autonomous region before the overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Touré in 2012 (AC Vol 53 No 7 Rebels and putschists)...
Moroccan sources suggest that even if the King is unhappy with Hollande – missing the sort of relationship he had with Jacques Chirac or even Nicolas Sarkozy – there are limits to how far relations will be allowed to decline...