Madame Causes Displeasure

As they hugged their celebrating family members, the slender silhouette of Cecilia Sarkozy appeared on the plane's stairs," Rome's La Repubblica daily wrote. "She is certainly the heroine of this release… along with her husband Nicolas and the grey eminence Claude Gueant, secretary general of Elysee Palace. Despite the criticism from … the left-wing opposition, the matter is a triumph for the Sarkozys, the baptism of 'couple diplomacy' that never existed before: Yesterday Cecilia brought the nurses home and at the same time emphasized the humanitarian aspect of her role. Today Nicolas travels to Tripoli to meet [Libyan leader] Gadhafi and to lend the agreement a political dimension."

But others weren't quite so happy with with Sarkozy's behavior.

"Madame Sarkozy's intervention has caused displeasure," according to De Morgen in Brussels. "The European Commission can hardly explain itself why, of all people, Cecilia Sarkozy traveled to Libya, and some EU parliamentarians and members of the French opposition find it outrageous that the Sarkozys want to 'take the credit' for the release, while the EU has been lobbying for years for the unfortunate six."

"'Super Sarko' layed it on too thick after the happy resolution of the drama, too artlessly did he take the credit that actually belongs to others," wrote Germany's Nürnberger Zeitung daily. For, it was the diplomats of the EU, Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who over the years doggedly negotiated with the Libyan leader behind the scenes. Worse still: Sarkozy artlessly used the touchy affair to help his capricious spouse with her personal search for meaningful activities. With that he demoted complicated foreign policy to a sort of therapy for couples. Not everyone is enthusiastic about Cecilia Sarkozy's charm offensive as a humanitarian ambassador on the political frontline."

"We can't exactly understand why Cecilia Sarkozy travelled to Tripoli twice within a two-week period -- even if she was, like many, outraged and concerned about the fate of the nurses," commented French Catholic daily La Croix shortly before the medics were flown out of Libya. "We can only hope that the idea was not to take advantage of the media attention the release would attract. The EU's diplomats, who have been negotiating with Libya for years, would hardly be able to appreciate the French activism in the moment of the release. Is it really the French first lady's job to get involved in a very touchy and complicated case in which much has been unsaid … and in which there are possibly secret negotiations for the French armaments industry?"

"It is a real success for the [European Union's] common foreign policy and one that was earned only by years of gruelling effort and negotiation," wrote the Financial Times in London. "Bulgaria on its own could never have done what was achieved by the EU as a whole. That said, it comes as no surprise to see Cecilia Sarkozy, wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, appearing in Libya just before the prisoners' release. … While France has, along with the UK and Germany, contributed to the complex deal that secured the Bulgarians' freedom, it would not be the first time that one EU power has tried to hog the limelight and take the credit for a shared success. This behavior is self-centered but political ego is one of the many motors driving the EU. Like it or not, it can bring results."