May 14, 2012
Despite his anti-austerity rhetoric on the campaign trail and her open support for Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and Angela Merkel are expected to make compromises during their first meeting on Tuesday. In the euro crisis, the pair has no choice but to get along.
There could be a few embarrassing moments when François Hollande and Angela Merkel meet for the first time at the Chancellery in Berlin on Tuesday night. Although the two have come across as adversaries in recent months, from now on, their future will be pegged to one another.
Never before has a new relationship between German and French leaders been as strained as this one. Both the chancellor and the new president have contributed to that atmosphere. Merkel refused to meet with Hollande during the election campaign and often presented herself as a supporter of losing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Meanwhile, Hollande campaigned against Merkel's European Union fiscal pact, her greatest European policy achievement to date.
When Hollande campaigned across France in recent weeks, it seemed at times he was acting as if he were going to liberate the Continent from Merkel. At the same time, though, close advisors to the Socialist Party candidate were telling the Germans that Hollande didn't really plan to renegotiate the fiscal pact. They said he would be satisfied with additional growth measures.
On the German side, these reassurances are being taken more seriously than the candidate's stump speeches. For some time now, officials within the Chancellery have felt there would also be positive aspects if the Socialist candidate beat Sarkozy.
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