Yesterday, France officially declared Nicolas Sarkozy as the newly elected President. Sarkozy wasted no time in stating that he looks forward to working closely with the United States saying that France will “always be at their side”. This lies in contrast to departing President Jacques Chirac whose relationship with the U.S. could best be described as icy.

This new leader, along with the impending stepping down of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, makes me wonder if France will be replacing England as our strongest ally in the world?

Something like that is a bit strange to think about. Americans have generally not had the nicest thoughts about the French in the past and vice versa; now we’re going to be all buddy-buddy? We are after all just a few years removed from ‘Freedom Fries’…

It’ll be interesting to see who England chooses as their next leader as clearly the war in Iraq is about as popular over there as it is over here – which is to say, not at all. Tony Blair has of course steadfastly stuck by President Bush until recently when England began to pull their troops out. As such England may be thinking of a new direction in leadership and until the Bush administration is gone in 2008, relations with England could become like, well what they have been like with France, strained.

Vive la cooperation?

[UPDATE 5/10]: Of course you’ve heard by now that Tony Blair is in fact stepping down in June. The Washington Post has a piece on Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown. Basically they think things are going to go down exactly as I described above.