Merkel joins Sarkozy election camp in interests of eurozone

EUROPE’S oddest couple just moved closer together – Angela Merkel of Germany is to actively support Nicolas Sarkozy of France in his re-election bid for president in less than three months time.

A duo known for the chasm that exists between them in style, substance, taste and manners has come yet closer together for the sake of politics.

“The CDU chairwoman, Chancellor Angela Merkel, will actively support Nicolas Sarkozy with joint appearances in the election campaign in the spring,” her Christian Democratic Union party said in a statement yesterday. The idea of one European leader hitting the hustings for another is virtually unknown. But with the fate of the eurozone riding on their chemistry getting better – and getting it right – the conservative Ms Merkel is willing to support the conservative Mr Sarkozy rather than risk Socialist Francois Hollande coming to power.

Dubbed “Merkozy” because of their forced relationship, both fear Mr Hollande, currently riding high in opinion polls, winning control of the Elysee Palace. The CDU secretary general Hermann Gröhe has already taken part in campaign events for Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party and in a speech in Paris on Saturday, he said the policies of Mr Sarkozy’s Socialist opponent would “weaken Europe.”

To critics who view the EU as a cosy Franco-German club, it just got cosier. But Ms Merkel – who has called Mr Sarkozy “Herr Blah-Blah” behind his back because of his ability, in her view, to talk a lot about nothing – has come to think his passion matches her own when it comes to saving the common currency.

Mr Hollande has steered clear of criticising Ms Merkel directly for meddling in French affairs saying that Mr Sarkozy “has the right” to invite Ms Merkel to France to support him.

“If Ms Merkel wants to come to France to defend the incumbent, she is totally free to do that,” he said.

The first round of presidential elections in France are scheduled for 22 April, with a potential run-off set for 6 May. An opinion poll late last week said Mr Hollande would win some 56 per cent of the vote in a run-off against Mr Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy made a televised speech yesterday revealing reforms meant to stimulate France’s struggling economy. One such reform, a “social tax” inspired by Germany, would shift the cost of social security from employers to consumers.

Observers say this can only have come from the chancellor’s office in Berlin, and is a sign of how much he is willing to emulate the policies of the old-enemy across the Rhine .

It was the last blow, when France lost its triple-A credit mark, that put Ms Merkel into the driving seat of the European project. Yet despite her keenness to retain a man that she now feels able to control in Paris, little else in her opinion of him seems to have changed.

Another of her nicknames for him among her staff is Zappelphillip, a German word meaning fidget but most usually applied to children suffering attention defecit disorders. Apparently what grates most of all is not his impulsiveness, what she receives as ill-thought out ideas, but his flamboyant style of greeting.

“Nicolas Sarkozy’s places two noisy kisses on her cheeks,” recently commented political magazine Cicero. “One right, one left. Schmatz. Schmatz. Finished. Sometimes he even clouts her brutally on the back. As one does with regimental comrades or at a pub table reserved for regulars.”

But for now, at least, he remains the alien she would rather deal with above all others in France.