For all her talk of changing France, Ségolène Royal has just showed us that there are some things which do not change: in this case her conviction that French politicians have the right to tell other countries how to behave. East Europeans are still smarting from Chirac’s whiplash in February 2003 about speaking out of turn amongst the Great Powers – indeed the list is long. Following a meeting last night with André Boisclair, the head of the Parti Québecois who is visiting Paris, Royal told reporters that she shared M. Boisclair’s views, principally on “la liberté et souveraineté du Quebec”. That remark, relayed of course by Radio Canada, was jumped on by Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper with a stinging: “Experience shows us that it is totally misplaced for a foreign leader to intervene in the democratic procedures of another country”. Quebec’s premier Jean Charest said that any decision about Quebec’s future would be made in Quebec, while another Canadian politician, Michael Fortier, added that the question of Quebec’s sovereignty would not be decided in the 8^th arrondissement of Paris. Stephen Dion, the head of Canada’s liberal party, visiting Quebec, said that “It destroys her credibility, I don’t think she understands. One does not meddle in the affairs of another country. Canada does not want the break-up of France [presumably a reference to Corsican and other independent movements], I am sure France does not want the break-up of Canada.” But Mme Royal has a gift for not understanding foreign countries. When she visited the Lebanon before Christmas she drew criticism first by meeting a Hezbollah politician, and then by “not hearing” when he compared Israel’s treatment of Palestine with the Nazi occupation of France. On a recent visit to China she praised the Chinese judicial system for its speed (skating over the ten thousand executions each year). Such remarks show deep and damaging inexperience in foreign policy, and earn her nothing but scorn in her own country. Those with longer memories will remember the remarks she made a year ago in praise of Tony Blair – that raised a knee-jerk storm of protest in France.

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