GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has joined the fray of French politics by throwing her weight behind President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election campaign.
Dr Merkel played down her declaration of support yesterday for Mr Sarkozy, but her intervention has been criticised by opposition figures close to the socialist frontrunner François Hollande.
“I support Nicolas Sarkozy because we belong to political parties that are friends,” she said after a joint meeting of French and German ministers in Paris yesterday. “It is normal that we support parties that are friends.”
Dr Merkel’s backing was flagged last month by her Christian Democrat party, whose second- in-command, Hermann Gröhe, said Mr Hollande’s policies would weaken Europe.
Sources within Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party say the request to involve Dr Merkel came from the president himself, who is lagging badly in opinion polls with just three months to go before the election.
Mr Hollande’s camp has officially brushed off the initiative, but his campaign manager, Pierre Moscovici, hinted at unease last weekend, saying the chancellor was “obliged to show a certain reserve”.
Mr Hollande said in response to Dr Merkel’s endorsement of the incumbent yesterday: “My only criterion is the French people. I don’t need the support of anyone else.
“If Mrs Merkel wants to campaign for Mr Sarkozy, she is perfectly within her rights. It’s a tough task she has set herself, because it’s not easy to convince the French.” He added that the fact Mr Sarkozy needed the chancellor’s support “says a lot about his situation”.
At a joint press conference, Mr Sarkozy and Dr Merkel criticised Russia for joining China in using its veto to block a UN resolution on Syria at the weekend.
Mr Sarkozy said he would speak to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by phone, and would instruct prime minister François Fillon to contact his counterpart Vladimir Putin, to make France’s position clear. “France and Germany will not abandon the Syrian people,” said Mr Sarkozy. “What’s happening is a scandal. We will not accept that the international community remains blocked.”
Dr Merkel, whose country had co-sponsored the UN resolution with Arab League backing, said she was “appalled” it had not been voted through, and backed Mr Sarkozy’s calls for a Syrian contact group.
“Russia must ask itself if we are really in a historical situation where policy should be made separately from the Arab League,” she said. “I can’t imagine that this will prove to be a big success.”
Mr Sarkozy said neither France nor Germany could accept the status quo and would work with the Arab League to raise pressure on Syria. “It’s very surprising that the Russians, who have always been close to the Arab League’s position, would distance themselves from it today – you wonder why,” Mr Sarkozy said.
France and Germany are working on closer convergence of their economies, a process Mr Sarkozy said would create a “zone of stability” at the heart of the European Union. Moves towards a common corporate tax regime were well advanced and would require Paris to reduce its tax rate and widen its base.
The French president has used Germany as a benchmark in pushing his reform agenda, citing its strong growth, labour costs and competitiveness as examples to follow. “Germany has had huge successes. That doesn’t make us jealous – it inspires us,” he said.