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Meet America’s new Ambassador to France

An experienced diplomat who formerly worked in Belgium, the USA's new Ambassador has arrived in Paris.

Published: 9 March 2022 16:32 CET
Meet America’s new Ambassador to France
Photo: Par User: Mouloud47 / Wikipedia Commons

France’s new US Ambassador is no stranger to US-European relations, having served as Ambassador to Belgium for four years.

An experienced diplomat and a fluent French speaker, Denise Campbell Bauer, 58, was based in Brussels between 2013 and 2017 after being nominated to the position by Barack Obama – for whom she had raised millions of dollars for his two presidential campaigns.

A noted advocate for women in politics, in 2019, she was executive director of the ‘Women for Biden’ campaign group for Joe Biden’s ultimately successful bid for the Presidency.

She is a former TV journalist and has worked with the American Red Cross. 

She was nominated for the post of Ambassador to France and Monaco by President Joe Biden in July, and confirmed by the Senate during a marathon series of votes in December. She presented her credentials last month.

Announcing her nomination, the White House said in a statement: “Denise Campbell Bauer is an experienced diplomat, non-profit leader, and advocate for women’s voices in politics and policy. 

“She served as the United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium from August 2013 until January 2017, where she led one of the largest embassies in Europe and earned a reputation for her collaborative leadership style, high ethics standards, and crisis management skills.”

She takes over the post at a critical time in global politics, with the US and EU nations co-ordinating sanctions against Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine.

She succeeds Trump nominee Jamie McCourt, who left in January. Chargé d’affaires Brian Aggeler has managed the embassy in the short intervening period.

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POLITICS

Joint leader of Sweden’s Green Party announces resignation

Märta Stenevi, the embattled leader of Sweden's Green Party, has said she is resigning to focus on her mental health, her children and her partner.

Published: 9 February 2024 12:49 CET
Joint leader of Sweden's Green Party announces resignation

The decision comes less than three weeks after Stenevi took an indefinite period of sick leave, saying that she needed time to recover after a bruising period that saw the party launch an internal investigation into complaints about her management style.

There has also been extensive press coverage over the alleged conflict she has with Daniel Hellden, the man chosen as the party’s other leader at a conference in November. 

“This is a very difficult decision,” Stenevi told the Aftonbladet newspaper. “I put myself forward for reelection and received a renewed mandate from the congress, but I don’t believe I can be my best self right now and I don’t really know how long it will take to get back on my feet.”

“The party deserves better than to be in some kind of limbo, where one of the spokespeople [as the party calls its leaders] cannot fully carry out the role. And I need to focus on getting better again, being a good mum and a pleasant partner.”  

Writing on Instagram, Stenevi’s joint leader Daniel Helldén said that he was sorry to see Stenevi go. 

“I have respect for her decision, but personally I think it’s a real shame. I have very much enjoyed working together with Märtha,” he said. 

Stenevi said that the leaks to the media about complaints about her management style in the autumn had been difficult for her to handle. 

“It put me under enormous pressure. It wasn’t the media attention: I understand that you are going to be continually criticised and investigated, but what happened in the autumn was that there was a lot of anonymous briefing, so you didn’t know who you could trust or where it was coming from, and that made it much more difficult and much more draining.” 

When Stenevi went on sick leave last month, the party’s secretary, Katrin Wissing, told TT that her relationship with Daniel Helldén had not played a role in her departure.

“On the contrary, Daniel has been giving Märta extremely good support,” she said. 

Although Stenevi is resigning as party leader, she intends to remain in parliament is an MP, and has not decided to give up her career in politics. 

“When I’m back on track, I’ll see what happens, but I don’t feel completely finished with politics,” she said. “But this is the right decision, both for me, my family and my party.” 

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