Only the other day, I was writing elsewhere about the Cécilia effect, suggesting that one or two minor scrapes involving her seemed to be detracting from an otherwise flying start for Sarko's presidency.
I harked back to the Elysée credit card row and the mischievous reports that she wants a pool built at the Fort de Brégançon - and keys to the door, plus chauffeur-driven cars, so the older Sarko children can visit independently.
Then there was the flap caused by the discovery that two of the workers giving a wash-and-brush-up to La Lanterne, the Versailles presidential hunting lodge Mme Sarkozy evidently prefers to the Elysée, were illegal Malian immigrants. Not to mention the unanswered questions about her failure to vote for her old man at the second round on May 6
So why am I now preparing to make an about-turn and pat her on the back?
And no sooner were the words uttered than she was packing for the flight to Libya, an admirable initiative that took her to see both the outrageously condemned Bulgarian medics and relatives of the children infected with HIV while under their care. She also met the old rogue Col Gaddafi.
And if her visit brings that wayward north African state a few metres closer to ending the despicable ordeal of these people - five nurses, plus one Palestinian doctor - under sentence of death, it will have been a worthwhile start to the First Lady's official duties.
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