America is expected to roll out the red carpet for François Hollande
today as the president becomes the first French leader to make a state visit for almost two decades.
The three-day visit, which includes a black-tie dinner at the White House and a trip in the presidential plane Air Force One, is seen as evidence of the close ties between the US and France.
As well as talks with Barack Obama, who has hosted only six state dinners since he took office in 2009, Hollande will visit Silicon Valley and have lunch with the heads of key technology and social networking companies.
He will also tour the Francophile president Thomas Jefferson’s house in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, unusually, he will not address Congress. Both the White House and the Élysée insist this is due to a lack of time.
Google
In San Francisco, Hollande will meet Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, as well as representatives from Twitter and Mozilla.
Hollande is reportedly planning to voice concerns about data protection and the “tax optimisation” schemes of major internet companies such as Google. Last week Google was reportedly hit with a €1 billion bill in unpaid taxes by the French fiscal authorities.
Officials say, however, that relations between the two countries are “excellent”, despite revelations last year that American intelligence agencies had been snooping on the French and other Europeans.
And the criticism will not be all one way. Hollande is sure to face hard questions from Silicon Valley firms about France’s high taxes for companies and what are seen as business-unfriendly economic policies.
The visit will also be dogged by continued interest in Hollande’s private life. The president was originally due to fly to the US with his partner Valérie Trierweiler, but the couple split after it was revealed Hollande had been secretly visiting an actor.
'Private life'
Le Monde said the American president would roll out the "super-red carpet" for his French counterpart. "Europe is back," it declared. The last French president to undertake a state visit was Jacques Chirac, who visited Bill Clinton in 1996.
“The French president will have the right to a favourable treatment as good as the English special relationship,” it wrote.
However, it said: “The official message risks being constantly obscured by the affair of the president’s private life. The split between François Hollande and his first lady has much amused the Americans and amazed political communicators.
"At least the visit isn't going unnoticed," said Le Monde. -(Guardian News & Media 2014)