Divisions opened up when France emerged as Greece's staunchest ally and Germany demanded Athens abide by Eurozone rules and opened up the possibility of a Grexit to save the euro.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's own finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble strongly argued that it would make more sense for Greece to leave the Eurozone temporarily rather than take another bailout.
However, French President Francois Hollande said France would back a Greek bailout — at almost any cost — in the face of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which argued that the third bailout would be "unsustainable".
The split goes to the heart of the European project. The famous Paris-Bonn axis — which put an end to the Allied occupation of Germany — marked the beginning of the European dream: a vision of a war-free trading relationship within Europe.
Some 51 years after the signing of the Elysée Treaty, which celebrated the marriage between the German and French government, things have turned sour. The treaty was signed by President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on January 22, 1963 at the Elysée Palace in Paris, establishing the end of centuries of rivalry between the two countries.
Different Political Agendas
Half a century on, there is discord where there was concord. According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, the roots of the problem go back to the political differences between the federal system in Germany — which returns coalition governments where compromises need to be made — and the French presidential system.
For a thousand years European history was shaped by Germany and France fighting to be the true heir to a pretend heir to an Italian Empire.
— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) August 1, 2015
Yves Bertoncini, President of the Jacques Delors Institute, says Merkel and Schäuble are having to play to a coalition of the CDU party which is behind him and the chancellor and the SPD which is against him. Schäuble is a Eurozone hard-liner. Merkel does not want to preside over a collapse in confidence of the euro.
The politics of Paris are different. Hollande believed — right from the outset of the third bailout talks — that keeping the Eurozone together was the priority, despite the effects of a deep package of austerity measures.
The political reality is clear to see. Hollande has to deal with an insurgent far-right National Front calling for the fundamental reform — if not dissolution — of the Eurozone, while assuaging the demands of the left wing of his party, wanting to see him defy the German-led austerity package and back the Greeks.
In Berlin, Merkel is having to mollify public opinion, which is dissatisfied with the slow approach Athens has had to tackle its fiscal — mainly tax and pension — reforms in the five years since its first unsuccessful bailouts.
In 2017, Hollande is set to contest the presidential election and Merkel faces a federal election. The campaigns at home will begin next year. Despite the Elysée Treaty, it might all come down to what is meant by a political agenda, or "Agenda", or "ordre du jour". Different languages, different nuances.
