Franco-German Friction: Is Merkel Getting on Sarkozy's Nerves? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel aren't as enamoured of each other as their smiles and embraces might suggest. The charismatic Sarkozy has irked Berlin with his budget policies and his recent rescue mission to Libya. And Merkel and her ministers aren't flavor of the month in Paris either.

 Sarkozy and Merkel were very chummy in front of the cameras when they met near Berlin on Monday. But things are apparently very different behind the scenes. How warmly they embraced each other at Monday's meeting in Meseberg palace north of Berlin. Kissy-kissy for the cameras, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were all smiles.

Behind the scenes, however, relations between the two leaders appear to be cooling. Merkel is reported to be getting on Sarkozy's nerves and the German government was deeply unimpressed with his go-it-alone (more...) strategy to get Libya to release the Bulgarian nurses it had held for eight years.

German newspaper Rheinische Post reported Tuesday that Sarkozy was miffed by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück who accused him at a July meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels of handing out generous tax gifts to his voters rather than sticking to EU-agreed savings programs.