With la Métropole beset by unemployment, strikes, homelessness, urban decay, race riots, labor-cum-student riots, racism, anti-Semitism, and malaise, big French government, helpless to improve things at home, has turned its attention and big-government resources to improving France's image abroad.

CHIRAC BORROWS A BIT OF BRITAIN TO LIFT FRENCH PRESTIGE

PARIS May 16, 2006 (Telegraph) - France yesterday revealed a plan to halt its declining influence abroad with a programme for cultural diplomacy described as a "British Council à la française".[So dubbed by Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, former cultural advisor in London, director of l'Agence française d'action artistique (Afaa), and an important booster of the current project.] A key feature of the offensive will be the building or refurbishing of French lycées in several capitals, including London.

An agency, Cultures France, is being created with a £20 million annual budget to breathe new life into the work of two established bodies, the French Association for Artistic Action [Afaa] and the Association for the Dissemination of French Thought [l'Agence pour la Diffusion de la Pensée française].

Another organisation, Campus France, will seek to overcome one legacy of the recent job law protests: the trail of damage left by students in the country's universities.

[FOOTING THE BILL

(From The Economist) - The anti-CPE protests may cost French universities dearly, since the government has asked them to pay for damage inflicted by students who occupied their campuses in March and April. About 15 campuses suffered considerable damage, mostly anti-CPE graffiti, trashed toilets and general filth from weeks of students camping in corridors. Estimates put the repair costs at €2m ($2.5m), not including damage to Paris’s historic Sorbonne university, which will need up to €1m for renovation and cleaning, according to Yannick Vallee, the vice president of the Confederation of University Presidents. The education minister, Gilles de Robien, said on April 19th that he thought the faculties were capable of footing the bill themselves. But Mr Vallee complained the cash-strapped institutions were being “punished” for the unruliness of their students.

€3M of public-spirited vandalism is rather the least Campus France needs overcome.]

Then there is this perennial French white elephant:

The government will also devote £35 million to boosting French language teaching around the world. Ministers will be hoping the plans prove a greater success than Mr Chirac's famous "CNN à la française", which will broadcast predominantly in English when launched later this year.

But more important than anything France might attempt or actually accomplish is France looking good.

The foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy,* has appointed actress Fanny Ardant as France's ambassador for the campaign to trumpet its cultural identity.

"We have incomparable tools at our disposal," he said. "But the effects of our work are not always clear. What our overseas cultural strategy lacks is a label, a signature, a product brand."

A label. A signature. A product brand. M. le Ministre, why not just turn France over to LVMH? These people know how to package and position inessentials.

We would argue what French strategy lacks at home and abroad are principles, vision, political will, and competent officials to turn these into successful policies.

More on this at Le Figaro [Hat tip: Carine].

M. le Ministre speaks! Read the beginnings of the whole master plan here. (It's rather a long slog. Skip skip , skip toward the end.)

* M. le Ministre is today the undisputed dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™, robbing Mdm. le Ministre Alliot-Marie of her long-held distinction.

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