FRANCE: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was probably not fooled by the "warm congratulations" which President Jacques Chirac sent after his "beautiful victory" yesterday.
FRANCEThe leaders of continental Europe's great powers bear each other too many grudges for the French message to be believed - especially the phrase about "pursuing the friendly and confident co-operation established between France and Germany . . . since 1998".
In the last two German elections, Mr Chirac openly supported Mr Schröder's rivals: Mr Helmut Kohl in 1998, Mr Edmund Stoiber this year. A generous spirit might attribute it to empathy for fellow right-wing politicians. But two sleepless nights compounded the insult.
The first fateful night for Franco-German relations occurred at the Berlin Summit in March 1999, when Mr Chirac threatened to sabotage the entire Agenda 2000 if the Common Agricultural Policy was altered before 2006. At the end of the night, Mr Schröder reportedly took out his chequebook and said: "I'll pay, but I'll never forget." Mr Schröder got his revenge at the Nice Summit in December 2000, where he violated the sacrosanct equality of France and Germany in EU institutions by demanding power commensurate to Germany's population. When he finally gave in just before dawn, Mr Chirac allegedly muttered: "I shall not forget."
The "Franco-German couple", the "engine of Europe", has not recovered. Yet both men, in their pragmatic - their enemies would say opportunistic - way, know that they are doomed to get along for the EU to function. So there was Mr Chirac yesterday, assuring Mr Schröder of his "total disposition to work with you for a new development in relations between France and Germany".
Earlier this month at Hanover, the two men agreed to disagree about CAP reform until 2006, and not to mention it in public. Paris and Berlin also have fundamentally different views of European integration, now finding expression in the Convention that is drafting a European constitution. France wants power to remain with member governments; Germany favours a more federal system modelled on its own.
