[lg policy] SFGate: Hollande's Berlin Reception Shows He Speaks Merkel's Language

[Harold Schiffman]

 Does he speak German?
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012 (SF Gate)
Hollande's Berlin Reception Shows He Speaks Merkel's Language
Tony Czuczka and Mark Deen, ©2012 Bloomberg News


   (For more on Europe's debt crisis, see EXT4.)

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her first public
appearance alongside newly inaugurated French President Francois Hollande
with a joke. Merkel said she was "very glad" that Hollande came to Berlin
the day of his inauguration. "We are even more glad because he did this
despite the lightning strike," she told reporters. "Maybe this is good
omen for cooperation." The 27-minute press conference was delayed by more
than 1 1/2 hours after Hollande's plane was struck by lightning, forcing
him to return to Paris and board a second flight. Their briefing was
marked by grins and an apparent rapport between the leaders. A working
relationship is the minimum needed as the two pivotal policy makers seek
common ground and lead Europe's so- far unsuccessful effort to fix the
financial crisis. "I want to give a sense of what the friendship between
our two countries" means, Hollande said. "I consider this a relationship
that is balanced and respectful." France and Germany "want to work
together for the good of Europe." Hollande left Paris in the rain and
arrived in Berlin in the drizzle. Nicolas Meyer-Landrut, Merkel's European
affairs adviser, a fluent French speaker, warmly greeted Hollande's aides
as they waited for the two leaders to walk past a military guard of honor
outside the Chancellery. Hollande, who paraded along the Champs-Elysees in
a French- made Citroen DS5 hybrid after his inauguration less than 12
hours earlier, drew up outside the Chancellery in a black Mercedes S-Class
sedan built in Stuttgart.

Red Carpet

As the two leaders inspected the guard, television cameras at one point
showed Merkel gently guiding Hollande to the right side of the red carpet
as he threatened to veer into her path. After exchanging pleasantries in
English, they switched to their respective tongues once inside the
chancellery to discuss the debt crisis and "of course Greece," Merkel
said. They did their talking mostly through interpreters and Hollande said
that wasn't a hindrance. "It was a common language, namely the language of
the common interest of the will of each one to find solutions," Hollande
said. "I can assure you that the German chancellor understands even if one
speaks French. And the reverse is true, too: a French president
understands a German chancellor." Pictures released by her office today
showed the two chatting over coffee, then taking their conversation
outside to the balcony that overlooks the Reichstag building and the River
Spree that once formed the border between East and West Berlin.

Glimpses Offered

At their subsequent press conference, Merkel and Hollande "offered
glimpses at possible compromises, confirming the broadly held views in the
markets" that they may get along, said Christian Schulz, an economist at
Berenberg Bank in London. The impression they gave was that they might
"resume the Franco-German crisis management soon." The two share a modest
personal style. Hollande has said he intends to remain in his Paris
apartment instead of moving into the Elysee Palace, much as Merkel has
remained in her flat in central Berlin. Merkel may find Hollande, the
self-proclaimed "normal" French president, a closer temperamental match
than his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. A trained physicist who says she
analyzes before deciding and talks about her home cooking in interviews,
Merkel was a contrast to Sarkozy's "President Bling Bling," a leader who
sought the spotlight. Their styles were "like fire and water," according
to a U.S. diplomatic memo published by Wikileaks. Merkel and Sarkozy, both
57, were the first leaders of their countries born after World War II. Yet
it took the threat to the euro for them to form a united front. They only
struck up a rapport as they declared they would "do everything" to protect
the single currency. During the French presidential election campaign,
Merkel risked a lasting rift with the Socialist Hollande, also 57, by
publicly backing Sarkozy for a second term, saying that it was natural to
support the head of her sister party. For all their differences, German
and French leaders of opposing political camps have a history of
cooperation. The two nations, former enemies that fought three wars
between 1870 and 1945, were founding members of the European Union that
was created to make military conflict between them impossible. Social
Democrat Helmut Schmidt and Valery Giscard d'Estaing gave impetus to the
Group of Seven in response to the 1973 oil crisis. Christian Democrat
Helmut Kohl and Socialist Francois Mitterrand clasped hands at the World
War I battlefield cemetery of Verdun in a gesture of reconciliation.
Social Democratic Gerhard Schroeder and Gaullist Jacques Chirac found
common cause in opposing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In Berlin last
night, Hollande said "it's not the first time" that French and German
leaders are from opposing political camps. "But that's not a debate I want
to get into right now," he said, waving his hands and drawing a grin from
Merkel. "What I do know is that we have a common task."

   --Editors: Alan Crawford, James Hertling

   To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Deen in Berlin at
markdeen at bloomberg.net; Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka at bloomberg.net

   To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at
jhertling at bloomberg.net ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2012 SF Gate


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