There in wide coverage in the German press on the new President of France Sarkozy, who lost no time in visiting Berlin on 16 May, the same day on which he was sworn into office in the Elysée. The weekly DER SPIEGEL (14/5) comments: “Berlin will have to get used to the fact that in future it will have as its main ally a demanding partner […]. Sarkozy is aiming at a ‘diplomacy of results’. Behind this cold definition, Berlin fears that a tough policy of French self-interest lies hidden…. Hitherto Sarkozy has been considered a ‘hardliner’ on questions of the power and influence of the national economy. But he should not underestimate the determination of the Germans. […] For the time being Berlin is especially emphasizing the positive signals coming from Paris. As far as the European Constitution is concerned, there is moderate optimism in Berlin”. Commenting on the Sarkozy-Merkel meeting, the web edition of the weekly DIE ZEIT (16/5) says: “Many positions are shared by Sarkozy and Merkel. He is a convinced assertor of the transatlantic alliance. Of course each French President is Gaullist, simply because the Fifth Republic is Gaullist; nonetheless, his good will towards America and the Anglo-Saxon world in general is very developed and in this respect differs considerably from the ideas of Mitterrand and Chirac. Sarkozy also shares Merkel’s opinion about the Turkish question… Also in relation to Russia, the new French President shows he has reservations. This shared perspective ought to foster cooperation between Paris and Berlin, especially at the level of a ‘Europe of projects’. With Sarkozy a pragmatic man takes over the French helm and will continue to obstinately defend the interests of France, even though he apparently distances himself from the non-official French doctrine on Europe – weak European institutions. It remains to wonder what he means with his intention to ‘protect the Europeans’, which he mentioned during his inaugural speech, and what will be the reaction of Berlin”. “Cautious: that is the attitude of the Germans” to the meeting in Berlin between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, according to the French Catholic paper LA CROIX (16-17/05). According to the director of the German Institute of Ludwigsburg Henrik Uterwedde , interviewed by the paper, “the bilateral meetings will continue, but they won’t have the merely decorative role of recent months. There will be clear positions, albeit without overall consensus. There are too many common interests between the two countries”. The political expert Patrick Moreau says that as far as Europe is concerned “a division of tasks is also on the cards: to the French a role in the direction of the Mediterranean world, to the Germans one focused on Eastern Europe”. The paper adds that “the Germans await a rapid unblocking of the reform of the European institutions” and “have understood that with the new French President the decision must be taken in Parliament and not at the ballot box”. “The Palestinian war challenges the West”: that’s the title of an editorial in the Italian Catholic daily AVVENIRE (17/05) dedicated to the war that has broken out between the Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “The current German Presidency of the EU had condemned the launching of Qassam rockets [against Israel] and said it was deeply worried by the escalation of violence between Palestinian factions. It was right – points out Elio Maraone -. The repeated violence could be the prelude to a real Palestinian civil war”. “Saying that the situation is ungovernable is the least that one can say… Asking, as Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema and the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Mussa did yesterday, that the civil war and the firing of Qassam rockets be stopped” or considering the option of “sending an international peacekeeping force to the Gaza Strip, is the least one can do” observes the editorialist. But, he explains, “a peace initiative, whatever it be, must be assumed as soon as possible by the international community, from the Arab world to the European Union and the USA. Otherwise indifference and inertia risk being paid with Palestinian blood, and, God forbid, not only Palestinian blood”. Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin, who recently received the accolade of ‘Man of the Year 2007’, conferred on him by the leading Polish daily GAzeta Wyborcza (15/05) “due to his stalwart defence of the values of democracy and pluralism, and his Christian testimony of humanity and toleration”, declared: “At the present time the most difficult task in Poland seems to be dialogue between Poles, a dialogue that is dominated not by political interests, but by a fundamentally Christian attitude to human dignity and responsible unity… that is so important for a society profoundly torn by conflicts. Unity is threatened whenever the value of the freedom and the dignity of the person are forgotten (…) Our history cannot be built on the basis of pathological suspicions. In the country of John Paul II nihilism cannot become a national philosophy”.
