France

Nicolas Sarkozy, 66, President of France from 2007 to 2012, currently a valued member of Emmanuel Macron’s informal council of advisors, was today sentenced to a year in prison for bribery and corruption in a case with roots in his murky relationship with the late Muammar Gaddafi, the not much missed brotherly leader of Libya. This scandal is a tangled web, even by French standards. For those who have spent years attempting to get to the bottom of it, it offers the tantalising prospect that Sarkozy could become the first former French President ever to be thrown in the Paris prison called La Santé – although it doesn’t have a reputation for being good for the health.

There was a rally in Paris on Sunday at which a couple of hundred protestors vented their anger at the French government's 'anti-separatist bill' which was passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday. It was a disparate but predictable gathering of what one broadcaster described as ‘anti-racism, left-wing, pro-Palestinian and other activist groups’. The demonstrators were repeating the claims made by some left-wing politicians that the bill will stigmatise the country's Muslims. On the contrary, retort the government, who define the bill as a 'Respect for Republican values'. They say it will protect the majority of Muslims from the minority of extremists whose objective is to create a separate society in France in which Islamist values take precedence.

France has become the first country in the world to recommend a different vaccine regime for those who have recovered from the virus. The country’s public health authority has recommended that people previously infected with Covid-19 only receive one jab, rather than two. The advice is based on preliminary data, including two studies from the United States, that show the combination of antibodies built up from having the virus, plus one jab, creates immunity that ‘is equal to or even exceeds’ having two vaccines. It wasn’t long ago that French ministers were publicly criticising the UK’s strategy It’s too early to definitively say whether France’s strategy will work. For one thing, the government hasn't signed it off yet.

How is France dealing with its latest Covid wave? Not particularly well, if you listen to the director of epidemiological research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Earlier this week Arnaud Fontanet, who sits on the French version of Sage, said that Macron's approach risks repeating the 'tragedy of the English' as the Kent variant spreads across the country.  So how are those in the Élysée reacting? Macron shut all bars, restaurants and gyms back in October — but scientists like Fontanet want him to consider new restrictions. After all, France has been painfully slow at rolling out the vaccine, managing just 3.3 citizens per 100 compared to the UK's one in five.

Emmanuel Macron has become the pantomime villain for much of the British press after his hissy fit last week in which he questioned the efficacy of the AstraZeneca jab. It was the latest in a series of snipes at the British that has made the French president the scourge of Fleet Street. 'Bargain-basement Bonaparte,' was how the Daily Mail described Macron, while the Sun plumped for 'pint-sized egomaniac'. He's none too popular among his own people, either, the figurehead of the French failure to be the only member of the UN Security Council incapable of producing their own vaccine. No wonder a recent opinion poll suggested Marine Le Pen is a stronger threat than ever ahead of next year's presidential election. But the president of France should be lauded for one triumph.

The number of Brits who have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine hit 9.2million yesterday. But not everyone is impressed at the pace of the rollout. Step forward, France's Europe minister, Clément Beaune, who has followed the example set by his boss Emmanuel Macron in criticising the British approach. The UK has taken 'a lot of risks' in its vaccine programme, Beaune told reporters:  'The British are in an extremely difficult health situation. They are taking many risks in this vaccination campaign. And I can understand it, but they are taking many risks. They have spaced – and the scientists have told us not to – they have massively spaced the two injections apart…They mainly depend on one vaccine, AstraZeneca.

There is a council meeting in the southern French town of Ollioules tomorrow but one item has been removed from the agenda. The mayor, Robert Beneventi, will not now propose renaming the area's Eucalyptus College after Samuel Paty. You'll recall the fate of Monsieur Paty, beheaded just beyond the gates of his Parisian suburb school last October by a young Islamist enraged that the teacher had shown a caricature of the Prophet during a lesson discussing freedom of expression. Paty’s brutal death sparked revulsion around the world – save in Pakistan and Turkey – and in France there was a large rally in Paris. There were numerous placards proclaiming 'Je Suis Samuel' and similar sentiments were widely expressed on social media.

France is having a torrid pandemic with a succession of failures, from PPE equipment to vaccine invention, a stalled vaccination programme and now interminable and frustrating hesitation over a third lockdown. But we, and the French, should focus on the many things they do get right. Traducing Mark Antony’s speech to the Romans, it is time to praise France not to bury her. The ninth French-organised Vendée Globe – the world’s most gruelling 80-day, round the world solo yacht race – drew to a close in the small hours last night at Sables d’Olonne in the Vendée in western France. Its competitors, overwhelmingly French, have provided a dazzling example of the best of sport.