German Chancellor Angela Merkel is so concerned that a shift to the left in France after the coming French election could derail the German-led austerity drive in Europe that she plans to join France's President Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail in the coming weeks to forcefully support his re-election, her party said over the weekend.
In Paris, Mr. Sarkozy appeared embarrassed by Ms. Merkel's advances, essentially because he has not yet announced that he would seek a second mandate in the spring presidential election. "I did not know she voted in France," the French President said in an interview with multiple television channels on Sunday evening.
Such cross-border campaign support is not unusual in Europe, where national parties are grouped in European political families. For example, Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel met at conference of the center-right European People's Party in December, immediately before a summit where European leaders finalized plans for greater fiscal convergence and discipline.
Ms. Merkel's support is not a guaranteed asset for the French president, analysts say, because many voters see the German leader as imposing painful, unwanted austerity across the euro zone. However, public opinion polls in France have shown Ms. Merkel to be more popular there than Mr. Sarkozy.
Hermann Groehe, the general secretary of Ms. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party, over the weekend praised the alliance of Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy in Europe's efforts to resolve the euro zone debt crisis. He also sharply criticized Mr. Sarkozy's challenger, the Socialist François Hollande.
"We can be proud of their joint demonstration of leadership," said Mr. Groehe on Saturday, speaking at a gathering of the French conservative party Union pour un Mouvement Populaire. "With courage and conviction they have laid the groundwork so that Europe can emerge stronger from the crisis."
The CDU said that Ms. Merkel would appear together with Mr. Sarkozy at several campaign events in France over the coming months to demonstrate the importance of their partnership.
In 2009, Mr. Sarkozy supported Ms. Merkel, when her party campaigned for re-election.
Further back in history, French and German leaders have often been from opposing sides of the political spectrum, providing few opportunities for leaders in office to play a part in the other country's election campaigns.
That was the case in the 1980s, and the first half of the following decade, when the Socialist François Mitterrand held power in France while the center-right Helmut Kohl was Germany's Chancellor.
Messrs Kohl and Mitterrand developed a close working relationship despite their different political ideologies, working closely together for years through historic change. Their close cooperation played a key role in the crafting of the Maastricht Treaty that laid the foundation for the euro.
In a rare blurring of political lines, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is affiliated with the center left, praised Mr. Sarkozy's policies after a meeting with the French President in Paris last month.
Asked if he had met with Mr. Hollande, the French Socialist leader, Mr. Schroeder told French daily Le Figaro: "No, I have not planned to."
read more: Olympus Wealth Management
No comments:
Post a Comment