French election could spell end of Merkozy alliance

[marmar]

French election could spell end of Merkozy alliance
Expected triumph of François Hollande could shift balance of power in European Union

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
The Observer, Saturday 21 April 2012



[font size="1"]French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, waves goodbye to German chancellor, Angela Merkel, as she leaves the Elysée Palace following a meeting. Photograph: Remy De La Mauvinere/AP[/font]


When the French go to the polls today for their first stab at choosing a new president, they may also tilt the balance of power in Europe in the midst of the EU's worst crisis.

The expected triumph for François Hollande will do little to resolve Europe's long-running agony of debt and decline. But it is likely to realign the power politics in the EU. "This election will determine the future of Europe," said a senior social democratic MEP in Brussels.

For Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who has struck up a close, if awkward, alliance with Nicolas Sarkozy through more than two years of single-currency turbulence, today's election is more important than many of her domestic campaigns, Der Spiegel said last week. "For Merkel, this is an election like no other, and one that is even more important to her than many German state elections. Whoever wins in France will help drive European policy by her side. If the victor proves to be Hollande, things could become uncomfortable for her, both in Brussels and at home in Berlin."

The Merkel camp has been praying for a Sarkozy comeback. In an act of seeming desperation that outraged many in Brussels, the Merkel government joined Sarkozy last week in a joint letter demanding curbs on freedom of travel in the EU's Schengen area, a campaign pledge for the French incumbent. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/22/france-election-end-merkozy-alliance

[pampango]

1. Merkel will be quite unhappy if Sarkozy loses. We can all hope.

She is still trying to help him get reelected.

Germany backs France in its demand for tighter national border protections

Germany is backing the demand of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to give nations of the Schengen borderless zone more independent means to close their national territory “as a last resort.”

Only days ahead of France’s first round of presidential elections, during which illegal immigration is a major issue, Berlin and Paris sent a joint letter to the European Union demanding the “nonnegotiable” right to re-establish national border controls for a month if need be.

During the French election campaign, securing French borders has been a hot topic, especially for right-wing candidates, with government estimates that some 200,000 immigrants enter France each year.

Senior German opposition lawmaker Christine Lambrecht said that the Franco-German “populist proposal ... is nothing more than propaganda for Sarkozy in the French presidential election campaign."

"The German and French interior ministers should drop this right-wing populist discussion and give up the plan quickly,” said Lambrecht, of the center-left Social Democrats. “Possible refugee problems cannot be solved this way.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-backs-france-in-its-demand-for-tighter-national-border-protections/2012/04/20/gIQA1di8UT_story.html

Green party chairwoman: Border shake-up proposal dismissed as 'right-wing populism'

"The French President is attempting to improve his hopeless situation with right-wing populist rhetoric," Green party chairwoman Claudia Roth told the Hamburger Abendblatt on Saturday.

Critics say the proposal to radically reform the Schengen agreement - which abolished frontier controls in 1995 – would be a retrograde step for Europe. Under the agreement immigrants to Europe are allowed to move freely between states once inside the Schengen area without having to show identification.

"A Europe without border installations and tollgates was the dream of all those who began the European unification process," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Focus magazine on Saturday. "We can’t jeopardize that now and especially not for small, tactical electoral gains."

"The community law of the union can’t be annulled by a bilateral announcement of two Interior Ministers," he told the Passauer Neuen Presse on Saturday. (President of the EU Parliament Martin) Schultz told the paper the "strange" proposal would not find majority support in the EU Council or in the EU Parliament.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120421-42087.html