Paging all turn-coats: Nicolas Sarkozy plans to reshuffle his cabinet soon, and isonce again looking to the opposition to fill some slots. Over the past two years, the conservative French president has offered plum jobs to leading socialists-a tactic Sarkozy calls ouverture ("opening") but his critics call dirty pool. The president has already won some high-profile defections, and five out of 38 current cabinet members are socialists, including Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The strategy is not without its problems. Sarkozy loyalists resent being passedover, and conflicting ideologies have made for some awkward moments. But the president seems focused on the benefits, namely spreading dissent among his political opponents. And his tactics are working-rumors are already flying about who will defect next. Meanwhile, though Sarko's tactics may have many opponents at home, they've already found an admirer across the Atlantic: Barack Obama, who has offered choice posts to various Republicans, provoking similar turmoil in the GOP. Call it l'ouverture or bipartisanship, few politicians can resist the seductive, universal language of power and promotion.
展开▼
