Euro crisis spurs Germanophobic voices in France
(PARIS) - The conflict over how to deal with the eurozone crisis has seen some French leaders resort to Germanophobia, including jibes about World War II and other dark moments in the two nations' shared history.
While President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel battle it out over what forces to deploy to end the euro crisis, some in the French elite are retreating into historical stereotypes not seen for generations.
Leading French Socialist Arnaud Montebourg last week accused Merkel of "Bismarck-style" policies, a reference to Germany's first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who also humiliated France in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.
"The time has come to take on the political confrontation with Germany and defend our values," said Montebourg, who lost the Socialist primary to stand against Sarkozy in next year's presidential election to Francois Hollande.
Criticised by Franco-German euro MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Montebourg denied he was a Germanophobe and said the comparison had in fact been suggested to him by the leader of Germany's SPD Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel.
Renowned left-wing intellectual Emmanuel Todd said that Germany was "drunk with power", also noting its "mental rigidity", while at least one lawmaker made an indirect comparison between Merkel and Adolf Hitler.
Left-wing Parisian MP Jean-Marie Le Guen said that Sarkozy's meeting with Merkel on the eurozone debt crisis was like "Daladier at Munich", a reference to French prime minister Edouard Daladier at the 1938 Munich Conference.
The conference saw the leaders of Britain, France and fascist Italy agree to give Nazi Germany the Czech Sudetenland in a failed bid to appease Hitler's ambitions.
Other French leaders have fallen into using belligerent language -- "capitulation", "diktats", "casus belli" -- though without mentioning Germany explicitly.
Political scientist Pascal Perrineau put the rise in Germanophobic voices in France down "to the financial crisis and electoral excitement" ahead of next year's presidential vote.
Perrineau said that while anti-German sentiment was strong in the 1950s when the European Coal and Steel Community was laying the foundations for today's European Union, with the stated ambition of preventing further wars between France and Germany, it has since markedly decreased.
"But there is cultural baggage in France that means that some xenophobic undercurrents can be reawoken. So watch out!" Perrineau said.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe slammed the Socialists for "risking reawakening the old demons of Germanophobia in France."
"The use of these terms sends shivers down my spine. It's shameful, through partisan spite, to weaken our most precious gain: Franco-German reconciliation and friendship."
Hollande on Sunday sought to halt his troops' advance, noting that "the history of Europe's construction is linked to the efficacy of the Franco-German driving force."
"Let's not confuse governments' policies with countries themselves," he told the Journal du Dimanche."
"We should all avoid statements that could give the impression that we're in conflict when we have differences that we need to resolve in Europe's general interest."
Despite Hollande's call for a ceasefire, Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Sunday told him to "end his friends' blunders" as a presidential candidate cannot "be held hostage to stupid excesses with a whiff of Germanophobia."
"Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't need any lessons in patriotism from those who think they're defending the national interest by caricaturing our German friends," Fillon said.
With Merkel due in Paris on Monday for another round of talks with Sarkozy on the euro's future, Hollande summarised that: "We don't want to be like the Germans and the Germans don't want to be like us."
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