Conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy may endure some uncomfortable moments while visiting Madrid today in his guise as France's current minister of the interior. Sarkozy, who will also make a campaign stop to visit Madrid's French expat community, is officially in Spain to talk about immigration and counter-terrorism with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

They're not exactly buddies. Last September, Sarkozy attacked the Spanish government for giving papers to about 600,000 undocumented immigrants. He claimed such policies would turn Spain into a magnet for illegals. Zapatero, in turn, recalled the fiery three-week riots of 2005 in largely ethnic and immigrant suburbs around France. Those conflagrations took place on Sarkozy's watch. "If certain countries want to give lessons," Zapatero said, "we are not interested."

If there are few bonds of blood, love or ideology between the two politicians, Sarkozy does have some other links in Spain. His wife, Cécilia, is a cousin of conservative Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. Sarkozy is meeting with Gallardón and other Spanish conservatives today, including opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, who warmly welcomed Sarkozy to a Popular Party convention last March.

Zapatero, for his part, probably feels closer to French Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, who made her own visit to Spain in September. When she defeated former Gaullist Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to seize the presidency of the conservative Poitou-Charentes region in 2004, her supporters began calling her "La zapatera."

Photo taken during French rioting in 2005 by Jack Guez / AFP-Getty Images