Many things have been written and said about the cabinet appointments by Nicolas Sarkozy, France's new conservative president. He gave a few high profile jobs to left wingers, and even in his own party tended to grant jobs to people outside his circle of close advisers. For the first time in history, women are on par with men in this cabinet.

There is also a historic first, but a highly unnoticed one: this is the first ever cabinet with a majority of bloggers, with 9 out of 16 members who had a blog before they were appointed to the cabinet. Does this mean France's new government gets new technology? If you look closely, it's not really the case. Some of them can barely be called bloggers at all.

On the good side, the prime minister, François Fillon, is notably technology savvy. Back in early 2006 he opened a blog, "France Can Handle the Truth," after an eponymous book, and has been writing his own posts. I can even vouch for the fact that, back when he was a Senator, he answered his own party emails (as did Valerie Pecresse, the new higher ed minister, sometimes). He has not decided whether he will continue blogging, as he fears he may not have the time and does not want to farm it out to some assistant. Mr. Prime Minister, for a busy statesman to keep citizens updated on what he's doing, may I suggest Twittering? You would be a first for France!

Another good blogger has been Alain Juppé, the environment minister (the most important job in the cabinet, believe it or not). Back in 2004 he moved to Canada to take a step back from politics after a corruption scandal, and opened a blog, al1jup.com ("al1jup" sounds like "Alain Juppé" in French txt speak) to keep making his voice heard in national politics. His tone is sincere and informal, and he often responds to user comments. Best of all, he has kept his blog up since coming back to the national stage, after being re-elected mayor of Bordeaux and now with his ministerial appointment. Good job, Mr. Juppé!

On the bad side, people like Valérie Pecresse and Eric Besson, another minister, do claim to have "blogs", but they do nothing but post press releases there. Even worse, new defense minister Hervé Morin's blog only shows an "under construction" page. Woo hoo.

Xavier Darcos, the education minister, had held a pretty good blog, posting informally and sometimes humorously on the presidential campaign. His blog was a pretty good read, informal and candid. Best of all, he actually moved his blog from TypePad to blogspirit.com, an ugly, clunky free platform — but the platform preferred by grassroots party supporters.

He has decided to discontinue this good effort after his cabinet appointment, stating that the time was no longer for "commentary" but for "action." Mr. Minister, with all due respect, if you think there can be meaningful action in today's political arena without engaging people directly through new technology, you are a few years behind schedule.

So, in short: again, it's plain to see that French political leaders, although they are enthusiastic about the internet, do not "get it," or not nearly enough. I turn my longing eyes to the UK, whose Tony Blair has his own YouTube channel, and of course to the US where, however slowly and reluctantly, candidates are beginning to truly engage citizens online.

Maybe, in time...