A few hours after taking office on May 15th 2012, François Hollande, the new French president, rushed to Berlin to meet with the German Chancellor. The name of his prime minister had just been announced, not even his full government. There was no time to waste. For all the parochialism of the French presidential campaign, Europe could not wait. It may be only a part of the country’s problems, but it has always been a key to their solution, and Germany the indispensable partner.
Unfortunately for the French, their cardinal election had not given them a chance to hear the full story. The socialist candidate kept promising he would never surrender to Berlin, he would twist Madame Merkel’s arm in a wink and renegociate the fiscal austerity pact Sarkozy had agreed to. Isn’t France the founding mother of the Union, the homeland of Monnet, Schumann and Delors, and its second largest economy? Nothing is possible in Europe without France, François Hollande solemnly declared. True. But nothing is possible in France without Europe either.
