‘The big chill’

Tensions between France and Germany rose yet another notch on Friday, after months of clashing over which policies to adopt in order to end the economic crisis. The most recent conflict concerns a leaked draft of an internal document of France’s ruling Socialist Party, intended for discussion at a party conference.

The draft document rails against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "selfish intransigence". Although a more watered down tone features in the final document to be adopted on April 30, this is a far cry from the "friendly quibbles" previously mentioned by French President François Hollande.

The point of view expressed in the draft is criticised by French conservative daily Le Figaro, which argues in a leader article that:

nothing could be more irresponsible than turning Angela Merkel and Germany's European policies into a scapegoat for the troubles brewing in our country. This strategy, maintained at the highest level in Paris, is part of a petty Machiavellian plot to make the German Chancellor lose the legislative elections [scheduled for September 22] so that Germany will be forced to abandon its calls for austerity and satisfy the demands of a southern Europe unable to reform itself.

For French daily Le Monde, "this little game is not only infantile, it is extremely dangerous" for several reasons:

First, because putting the blame for France's political and economic problems on the European Union feeds Euroscepticism. [...] Secondly, because if Ms Merkel remains impassive to the personal attacks of which she is the target in southern Europe, it is a whole other story when the attack comes from Paris.

On the German side of the Rhine, weekly Der Spiegel says that the discord between France and Germany hampers efforts to end the crisis:

François Hollande is placing his hopes in there being a new government after the German legislative elections, one that would be more ready and willing to make some compromises. He has no more expectations from the current government. A year after Hollande took office, the Franco-German relationship is in even worse shape than expected by the most pessimistic observers in each country. Berlin and Paris are in disagreement on nearly every policy for exiting the crisis.