Simmering tensions between Paris and Berlin have been laid bare by a ruling French Socialist party document denouncing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “selfish intransigence” and accusing her of thinking only about German savers.
The attack, in a leaked draft paper on European policy, capped a week in which calls have mounted from several European leaders for a review of austerity policies championed by Germany. The leak is likely to embarrass President François Hollande, who insists he has a good working relationship with Ms Merkel despite acknowledging “friendly tension” between them.
The document bitterly attacked the conduct of right-leaning administrations during the eurozone crisis including David Cameron’s British government, but reserved its harshest words for Ms Merkel. “The [European] project is today battered by a marriage of convenience between the Thatcherite leanings of the current British prime minister – who only conceives of a Europe A la carte and of rebates – and the selfish intransigence of Chancellor Merkel, who thinks of nothing but the deposits of German savers, the trade balance recorded by Berlin and her electoral future.”