WITH A sheepish smile, François Hollande stepped out on to the soggy red carpet in Berlin, 75 minutes late. “Sorry, my plane had a problem,” he muttered in English.
In Paris, the guardians of the French language in the Académie Française shuddered.
“No problem,” replied the magnanimous Angela Merkel, calm in her cream blazer with her helmet of hair fixed – like her smile.
It was a bumpy start to the Merkollande relationship and a clash of cultures for the dazed French Socialist leader: from the stucco and gold leaf explosion of the Élysée Palace to the sober, unadorned concrete slabs of the chancellery.
But outside the railings a sodden crowd cheered, putting the new boy at his ease.
The soaked military guard squeezed out two upbeat anthems, more applause from the great washed outside the railings, then the German leader gently steered Mr Hollande down the red carpet and into the chancellery.
After leaving Paris, their aircraft was struck by lightning, his aides recalled breathlessly.
They heard a loud bang that knocked out one of the jets. The aircraft immediately turned around and everyone changed to a replacement.
Merely a precautionary measure, they insisted, but no need to risk a Buddy Holly moment.
Mr Hollande’s aircraft may have been struck by lightning, but the dog hadn’t eaten his growth pact.
And so the two swept inside for talks. An hour later, they emerged, the differences of opinion visible under the hastily applied paper.
With his Berlin visit, hours after becoming president, Mr Hollande said he wanted to sent out an image of a “balanced relationship of mutual respect”. Then he got down to brass tasks: he promised to begin a revision of the 2012 French budget today and to investigate the legal possibilities of adding a growth component to the existing fiscal treaty.
“My wish is that growth is not just an empty word but something that can be felt in reality,” he said. “We want to put everything on the table that can lead to growth. We hope not to hide what separates us but hope to show that Germany and France have the will to work together for our two countries and for Europe.”
An expressionless Dr Merkel said there was an “obligation” for France and Germany, adding that “in public there often seems to be more of a divergence often seen than is really there”.
“We belong to different party families but doesn’t mean we can’t work together,” she added. “This is a situation that allows us to find good solutions, we have lots of experience of this in Europe.”
The two spoke their mother tongues but understood each other perfectly, she said tartly.
Then, with smiles and handshakes, they disappeared for their long-delayed dinner – asparagus and schnitzel.
Earlier, Mr Hollande’s German allies, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), tried to steal a march on the main event with their own growth proposals.
Many mirrored those of the two leaders – reassigning unspent EU funds, tackling youth unemployment.
SPD parliamentary leader Frank Walter Steinmeier was confident Mr Hollande would have more luck talking sense to the German leader on growth.
“Our calls have fallen on deaf ears,” he harrumphed. “We have to get away from ideological delusions and economic stubbornness of naked austerity. We need growth, by opening the fiscal pact to growth.”
Rain, lightning, fresh Greek elections, a falling euro. Just another day in the European Union.
“We didn’t intend to find answers to all questions, the main goal was to get to know each other,” Mr Hollande said.
Smirking, Dr Merkel added: “More meetings will follow.”
Merkollande: to be continued.
