July 8, 2010
Diplomatic stagecraft is a fine art, complete with its own lexicon of codes and cues. To hold a “frank discussion” is to row. To “welcome the recommendations” is to drop such advice crisply into the waste-paper bin. In French diplomatic speak, the word naturellement is usually followed by an assertion that is anything but. Games of appearance are the daily routine of diplomacy. But two conflicting versions cannot both, in the long run, be true. When it comes to its dealings with Germany, France is suffering from what psychologists call cognitive dissonance.
One account of how President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel are getting on holds that the pair are bound like squabbling neighbours, condemned to live together despite their differences. They are linked by post-war history and a mesh of institutional bonds between ministers, officials, soldiers and students. Despite finding each other “mutually unbearable”, as one European ex-foreign minister puts it, the two have found a way to get along. They smile for the cameras together, issue joint statements and hold joint cabinet meetings. They agree on taxing banks, more financial regulation and an “economic government” for Europe. They declare, as Mr Sarkozy did after talks with Ms Merkel in Berlin last month, that “more than ever, Germany and France are determined to speak with one voice.”
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