Dysfunctional Power Couple
One little-known roadblock to the EU’s ability to come up with a collective solutions to Greece and any number of other problems is the sheer antipathy said to prevail between the heads of the two most-powerful member-states, i.e. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Indeed, the dominating primacy of this “Franco-German axis” long ago reached cliché status among analysts of the European Union (though it’s no longer quite so true, naturally), meaning that the personal chemistry between the inhabitants of L’Élysée and the Reich Chancellery assumed a outsized importance to the two nations’ fortunes.
Unfortunately so, because Merkel and Sarkozy have apparently not been on speaking terms – at the personal level; their offices communicate just fine, thank you – for quite some time. Or maybe you don’t believe me and would like to see for yourself – well, the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant now enables you to do that by presenting this fantastically-awesome photo-series compilation of thirty-six (yes! count ’em!) kisses, embraces and similar close encounters – all fully-clothed: s’il vous plaît, je vous en prie! – between the two, entitled “The uneasy kisses of Merkel and Sarkozy” (and soon to be a major motion picture!).
So check them out, if you’re into analyzing that sort of thing. I imagine €S’s female readership will be particularly good at this. Do they look comfortable with each other? Here, let me help you out with what I’ve heard, although none of the following is really surprising if you think about these two characters for just a bit. Sarkozy thinks Merkel is a dull, unimaginative cow; for her part, Merkel regards Sarkozy (who is certainly shorter than she is, BTW, no matter what the photos might imply) as an excitable, flashy “bling-bling” fellow – as does indeed much of the entire French electorate, it seems.
C’mon, waddaya think? Frankly, the accompanying Dutch text gives the game away, in detail, so I’m not going to translate it for you – ha! Other than this remarkable part: “They do have to overcome even a certain repugnance in each other’s presence. But History has sentenced them to each other, so there’s nothing else to do but get over that repulsion.” Aint it the truth!
