The Hindu : A poet at ease with politics

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 10, 2002

International

International

A poet at ease with politics

By Vaiju Naravane

Paris May 9. The new French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, is no stranger to 37 Quai d'Orsay, the chic riverside address of the French Foreign Office, sandwiched between the Lower House of Parliament and Napoleon's tomb.

Diplomat, poet and historian, de Villepin is the author of several volumes of poetry, including "Parole d'exil", "Le droit d'ainesse" and "Secession", and a recent highly acclaimed biography of Napoleon. "The relationship between poetry and policy is an old one, dating back to antiquity.

It even came into play in a coded military message that included several lines of verse during the allied D-Day invasion of Europe," Mr. de Villepin remarked at a recent seminar on "Poetry and public policy".

Politics, he said, "is hindered by the substance of reality", while poetry is "the alchemy of life", a rich link between the past and the future that can help restore the sacred, reminding us to be faithful to our roots.

Between 1992 and 1995, he ran the Foreign Office for Minister Alain Juppe (later French Prime Minister) before taking over as chief of presidential staff in 1995 when Jacques Chirac was elected head of the French State.0 Mr. de Villepin is no stranger to India. He was first posted there for a two-year term from 1989 to 1990 and returned as the Number Two of the French Embassy in New Delhi from1990 to 1992.

When Mr. de Villepin was first appointed to run the presidential office he was seen as a neutral, non-political bureaucrat who brought with him experience of running an administration.

He proved them all wrong and journalists regularly covering the President say Mr. de Villepin personally vets everything reaching the President. With Mr. Chirac's wife, Bernadette and daughter Claude, he has been part of the very tight inner circle around the President.

Mr. de Villepin allegedly advised Mr. Chirac to dissolve Parliament and order early elections in 1997. A disastrous decision that led to a return to power of the Socialists and their allies and weakened Mr. Chirac's presidency.

Several insiders call him blunt and arrogant, a no-nonsense man who does not bother mincing his words.

Some of those who have worked with him, including a retired senior diplomat describe him as "a lone wolf who plays by his own rules and likes to work alone."

However, Mr. de Villepin is also considered responsible for bringing France and India closer together.

"He more than anyone else understood that France and India had a great deal in common. The two are not mere nation-states; they also are the products of intellectually and culturally rich civilisations.

It was de Villepin more than anyone else who impressed upon President Chirac the fact that a genuine cultural and strategic relationship between India and France was not only possible but also desirable," a former diplomat said.

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