May 21, 2012
France and Germany came no closer to a compromise on the thorny issue of how to revive economic growth in the euro zone after a meeting in Berlin on Monday, paving the way for a potential showdown of European Union leaders at an informal summit this week.
The new government of French President François Hollande is upsetting the balance in the Franco-German relationship, threatening to block the fiscal treaty on budget discipline, and now reasserting a demand for joint euro bonds that his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, had given up on in deference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was widely believed that Mr. Hollande, like his predecessor, would quickly cave in to Ms. Merkel, but the French Socialist leader is proving more stubborn than expected and appears to be trying to drive a wedge between Germany and the rest of Europe in a bid to force Berlin to open its purse and do more to revive the flagging economies in weakened countries on the periphery of the euro zone.
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