Hollande has Merkozy in a panic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she will accompany French President Nicolas Sarkozy to several election campaign events to support him in his battle to be re-elected. Merkel's lobbying is hardly surprising given that Sarkozy's re-election is in her own best interests, the left-liberal daily Der Standard comments: "It is an affront that as chancellor she is not willing to receive the rival candidate (Socialist François Hollande) even briefly in Berlin, as has been standard practice in the past. But it is pretty revolting to see how the two are currently exploiting the Greek crisis for their conservative slogans. The two Conservatives Merkel and her obedient servant Sarkozy ... must really be in a panic to resort to such base tactics. The chancellor fears that her austerity dictatorship would soon come to an end if Hollande took the helm in Paris in May. But the whole affair has an interesting new aspect: European politics has definitely become domestic politics, and vice-versa - now even at the highest level of power politics."

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