FRENCH DIPLOMACY TRYING TO BREAK ISOLATION

FRENCH DIPLOMACY TRYING TO BREAK ISOLATION

The DREAM AND REALITY OF FRANÇOIS transformation.

When François Hollande awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself metamorphosed into an offensive boss
military.

The first lines of the novel "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, serve as a metaphor for the drastic transformation of the image of French president since he that sent troops to fight groups linked to Al-Qaeda in Mali.

The undisguised appreciation of the socialist conciliation gave way to speeches assertive in what promises to "destroy the terrorists" in the impoverished former French colony in West Africa.
Measuring 1m70, slightly balding, bespectacled and softly, the Hollande looks peaceful. Clashes with the martial image of warrior chief. This apparent contradiction has inspired a profusion of cartoons of the press in recent days.
Conducting a war was never in the script, but the role was imposed by the deteriorating situation in Mali. Situated less than 2,000 km from Europe, the range of the desert north of the country (equivalent to the area of ​​Bahia) is under control of radical Islamic groups since last year.

Hollande launched the offensive last Friday, before the formation of a multinational force authorized by the United Nations. Now, French diplomacy attempts to break the isolation.
The view that Mali was a problem eminently French began to crumble yesterday. A terrorist commando raided and took hostages at a gas extraction plant in neighboring Algeria, internationalizing the crisis.
The tragic end with the death of hostages of various nationalities, showed that it can be repeated in other facilities of Western companies in the Maghreb.

"What is happening in Algeria justifies the decision I made on behalf of France to intervene in Mali," spoke President François Hollande, last night.
Elected eight months ago with the promise of being a "president normal", the socialist had been facing a gradual erosion of popularity mainly by lack of good results in the economy (low growth and high unemployment record).
In December, 62% of French people disapproved of the president, according to the institute BVA Opinion.
The intervention in Mali recycled the picture Hollande. According to the same research institute hired by the newspaper "Le Parisien", 75% of French people agree with the president's decision.

It is a superscript support for sending troops to Afghanistan in 2001 (55%) and the bombing of Libya in 2011 (66%). In parliament, Hollande found almost unanimous support.
Both in Afghanistan and Libya, the approval of his predecessors was waning as the French involvement stretched.

For now, domestically, the military offensive overshadows thorny issues for the president, as the controversial project and gay marriage ad that the automaker Renault intends to lay off 7,500 employees
2014.

Thirty-four and 15 hostages from their kidnappers Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda were killed on Thursday (17) during an army attack in Algeria to a field gas exploration, said a spokesman for Islamist quoted by news agency Mauritania Nouakchott Information (ANI).
The TV network Al-Jazeera also reported the death of 34 hostages, citing its own sources and witnesses.

According Islamist spokesman, told ANI that is present in the gas field near Amenas, the kidnappers, demanding the withdrawal of French troops from neighboring Mali, "tried to carry a portion of the hostages to a safer location in vehicles "when the Algerian army bombed," killing hostages and kidnappers at the same time. "
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The kidnappers said they would kill the remaining seven hostages Belgian -3, 2 Americans, 1 Japanese and 1-British case the army approached, according to ANI.
The official Algerian APS agency says about 600 hostages Algerian, and two Britons, a Frenchman and a Kenyan, were released during operation, without citing deaths.

For the newspaper "Le Monde", the French monarchy DNA persists in the circumstances of the Republic. In the past, a king was only fully king after the death of his predecessor, diplomacy or war.
Ironically, the war waged by a man who deplores the conflict makes many French people have the impression that, finally, someone is sending in the Elysee Palace.