A symbol of change – but is she the real thing?

It wasn’t hard to see what was in it for President Nicolas Sarkozy when he appointed Christine Lagarde as France’s new finance minister in June this year. After a glittering career in international law, Lagarde had become a star in American business circles: the 30th most powerful woman in the world, according to that ultimate arbiter of commercial influence, Forbes; the fifth best female executive in Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sarkozy, like all modern politicians, is obsessed with symbols and narratives. In Lagarde, he had his storyline made flesh. Look, he’s saying — we’re changing. This is not the old, closed-for-a-four-hour-lunch, anti-globalisation France. This is the new, power-breakfasting, 24/7, change-embracing France. And to prove it, we’ve installed the first women finance minister of a Group of Seven economy, and one who made her career in the United States as well. Very smart, and very Sarkozy.

But what, I wonder, is in it for her? Sitting in the breakfast room of the palatial finance ministry in the Bercy district — naturally we were meeting for breakfast at eight sharp — Lagarde appears unflappable.