The Electoral Pact: Crisis Desperation Drives Merkel to Campaign for Sarkozy

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A few years ago, such a headline would have been unthinkable. At the start of his presidency, Sarkozy didn't get on well with the rational, reserved German chancellor, who in turn was irritated by the French president's nervous hyper-activity and his tendency to keep on touching whoever he was speaking to. But then came the euro crisis, and it welded them together. And now that bond is being reinforced by the presence of a common enemy in the form of the Socialist Hollande. He describes himself as a "pragmatic leftist" but his campaign manifesto is so full of expensive promises that even the center-left Social Democrats in Germany have their doubts about him. The SPD helped to raise the German retirement age to 67 while Hollande thinks even 62 is an unacceptable imposition.

Hollande's European policy is causing Merkel particular concern. So far, she has primarily been able to push through her vision of European austerity only because she knows Sarkozy is on her side. Hollande, however, has already stated clearly that he will overturn the fiscal pact, the heart of Merkel's European policy. Merkel's aides are murmuring that Hollande will come to his senses if he gets elected. But that could be wishful thinking. "It is unbelievable if we're told that a newly elected Socialist president shouldn't be permitted to want to change anything about this pact. In that case you may as well tell us not to bother holding an election," says Hollande's campaign manager Pierre Moscovici. And he cites the example of a government leader who managed to get her own way against the rest of Europe, even if Hollande doesn't want to follow this extreme case. Margaret Thatcher, Moscovici, points out, once said: "I want my money back."

Hollande knows of course how Merkel feels about him. The Socialist visited the SPD in Germany in December and said: "We'll win together." Merkel was not amused. But Hollande is shocked at how demonstratively Merkel is now siding with Sarkozy. After all, the Socialist would have liked to adorn his election bid with a visit to the Berlin chancellery. The pale Monsieur Hollande could do with a bit of diplomatic polish. But the Socialists' request for a date have been left unanswered for weeks. "It is up to Ms. Merkel to decide when and if such a meeting could take place," says Moscovici.

Diplomatic Damage

According to Jean-Marc Ayrault, Hollande's adviser on relations with Germany, the German ambassador to Paris assured the Socialists that it was customary for a chancellor to meet the most important challenger in a French presidential election. But Merkel's people are looking for a way to reject Hollande's request without causing too much diplomatic damage.

No decision has been taken yet, but Merkel's campaign help for Sarkozy is raising fears that it might damage future German-French relations. How is the chancellor going to work together with a president whom she snubbed during the election campaign?

Merkel's aides aren't even trying to hide their dislike of Hollande. "The conflict between Sarkozy and Hollande is a clash of two fundamental concepts," says CDU General Secretary Gröhe. "Strengthening competitiveness or left-wing redistribution."

Some in the governing coalition are starting to grow uneasy about Merkel's bias. "The German government isn't a party in the French election campaign," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of the pro-business Free Democrats said when asked if he too planned to get involved. It was a clear signal that Germany's top diplomat doesn't approve of Merkel's strategy.

No German government leader has ever intervened so openly in a foreign general election, and Merkel herself has always placed a lot of emphasis on neutrality, even if she now says she is acting in her capacity as leader of the CDU.

A Little 'Old Fashioned'

When Barack Obama was running for president and sought permission to hold a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the summer of 2008, Merkel refused and forced him to appear before the less symbolic and less famous Victory Column. One may call that "old-fashioned," she said at the time. But only elected presidents were allowed to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, she added.

When she now says Sarkozy himself helped her in her election campaign, that's only half the truth. When Sarkozy visited her in Berlin in May 2009, four months before her re-election bid in September, the event was hosted by the youth organisations of the CDU and his UMP party -- and wasn't a pure campaign event.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl confined his electoral support to subtle gestures. In 1995, he visited the French conservative presidential candidate, Edouard Balladur, during the latter's winter holiday in Chamonix and called him "cher ami."

Kohl once permitted his political friend Francois Mitterrand to use the famous 1984 photo showing the two leaders holding hands in a gesture of reconciliation at the French World War I cemetery in Verdun. But that wasn't for Mitterrand's re-election campaign, it was for a European election.

Perhaps Hollande should silently savor Merkel's intervention because it may end up helping him more than Sarkozy. At the moment, at least, her support appears to be counter-productive. Many French voters are fed up with their president, who is constantly citing Germany as a shining economic example for France.

In the legendary French satirical program "Les Guignols de l'Info," a red-faced puppet with a strong German accent is a firm fixture. It represents Angela Merkel and is introduced as "President of the French Republic," and she always ends her snappy speeches about the lack of French discipline with the exclamation: "Arrbeiit!"

When Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, recently rang Hollande, the conversation quickly turned to Merkel and her planned campaign help for Sarkozy. Asselborn told him not to worry about it. "That's the best thing that could happen to you."

BY PETER MÜLLER, RENÉ PFISTER, MATHIEU VON ROHR and CHRISTOPH SCHULT

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• Part 1: Crisis Desperation Drives Merkel to Campaign for Sarkozy
• Part 2: The Dangers of Merkel's Strategy