France and Germany pledged themselves to renewed partnership at the core of the European Union yesterday as Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first German leader to mark Armistice Day with the French.
President Sarkozy stood beside Ms Merkel below the Arc de Triomphe in Paris at a ceremony of reconciliation that he staged as part of his plan for a grand relaunch of the old Franco-German axis. The immediate impact is a joint Franco-German list of candidates for the EU Presidency and other top Brussels jobs under the newly ratified Lisbon treaty.
"We share the same values, the same ambition for Europe, the same currency," Mr Sarkozy said. "So it is natural that French and German policy should be conducted more and more closely." Ms Merkel voiced German contrition over the suffering of the French in two world wars. "What happened cannot be forgotten, but there is a force that can help us ... the force of reconciliation," she said.
Ms Merkel, who has warmed to "Super-Sarko" after a bumpy first two years, called the reconciliation a miracle and a gift. "When there is antagonism between us, everybody loses," she said. "When we are united, everybody wins," she told a ceremony that included French and German military personnel.
"Lieber Nicolas" and "Chere Angela", as they addressed one-another, also conferred privately on the new EU posts. On Monday in Berlin they were reported to have agreed on Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, but the equation has changed with the withdrawal of David Miliband, who they supported for the new EU Foreign affairs post.
"Everything is in flux again," said a French diplomat. The jobs will be assigned next week at a summit, chaired by Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency. Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel are impatient over Sweden's slow work in brokering an accord behind the scenes. Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister, said the telephone traffic among EU leaders was intense this week as the decision approached.
Mr Sarkozy's reversion to the old "Franco-German motor" has followed frustration over his attempts after his 2007 election to forge a new bond with the "Anglo-Saxons". He was quoted yesterday as telling his Cabinet that "Obama is very disappointing in foreign affairs." He is also disappointed with Gordon Brown and he is pessimistic about the prospect of a eurosceptic Conservative Government taking power in Britain.
Mr Sarkozy's shift reflects worries that, two decades after re-unification, Berlin could be drifting away from its old commitment to the EU and towards a new relationship with Russia and other powers.
His aim yesterday was to emulate the gesture of reconciliation by the late President Mitterrand when he held hands with Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the Verdun battlefield in 1984. No German leader had previously attended the commemoration of German capitulation, though the former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder refused an invitation in 1998.
A few war veterans voiced uneasiness at hearing the German anthem and seeing German uniforms at the Arc de Triomphe. Ministers reassured them that the commemoration would revert next year to its traditional form.
Germany is wary of Mr Sarkozy's grander schemes for unity and experts on both sides note the persisting tension between the pair, with Germany disapproving of France's profligate public spending and a new clash on the horizon over future EU spending.
Ms Merkel has accepted an idea from Mr Sarkozy for exchanging Cabinet Ministers but while the French want a minister based in the other's capital, from as early as January, the Germans are more vague. On Tuesday, Werner Hoyer, the Europe Minister, called Mr Sarkozy's plan very brave: "One could imagine that a minister could regularly attend the Cabinet of the other country to present a particular subject," he said.
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