Hollande used Gulf springboard to emerge as master salesman

The Gulf monarchies may not seem the natural hunting ground for a French Parti Socialiste (PS) politician looking to burnish his electoral credentials, but François Hollande has started to feel at home with Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) leaders – and not just the francophone elite in Qatar (where Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani speaks excellent, Belgian-accented French, and his influential sister Sheikha Al-Mayassa is fluent). Hollande – whose opinion poll ratings in France have blossomed since the Charlie Hebdo attack in January