The president's thankless burden

摘要

"France is only really herself if she is in the lead," wrote the founder of the modern republic, Charles de Gaulle. For the current French president, Francois Hol-lande, leadership abroad has involved a steep learning curve: before taking office in 2012, he ran the provincial council of rural Correze. Yet in power Mr Hollande has shown a rather steadier hand in conducting foreign affairs than he has displayed running his own country. His activity abroad reaches wide. This week he was busy in Paris gathering support for a climate conference, to be hosted by France in December, which he hopes will lead to a binding accord on carbon emissions. His foreign minister, Laurent Fa-bius, held a particularly firm line during six-country talks with Iran, which resulted in a nuclear deal on July 14th. It was a French idea, for instance, to create a "snap-back" mechanism allowing sanctions to be reimposed automatically if Iran breaks its word. Now the French are capitalising on the deal. Mr Fabius will fly to Tehran to meet President Hassan Rohani on July 29th-although, to the dismay of eager French business types hoping for a seat on the plane, this is to be a political trip only.