You might think that an enfeebled France would engender quiet satisfaction in Berlin. François Hollande’s domestic travails, after all, eliminate any challenge to Germany’s economic prescriptions. The tangled politics of Europe and the eurozone, though, are more complicated than this. French weakness is also Germany’s problem.
True, you can catch a hint of condescension in the way German politicians talk about Mr Hollande’s predicament. Thirty years ago, you hear them say, François Mitterrand squandered two years in a vain attempt to buck economic orthodoxy. His successor had surely learnt something from the experience?
The same officials, however, acknowledge that France’s troubles are deeply discomfiting for Berlin. Angela Merkel needs the Franco-German motor – or at least the appearance of this fabled engine of European integration. A weak France leaves Germany exposed as the overmighty villain. It casts Berlin as the hegemon. Anyone with a slight acquaintance with European history knows there is no upside in this role for the German chancellor.