France’s ruling conservatives have dismissed a German press report that European leaders had agreed to shun Socialist presidential challenger François Hollande, who has said he wants changes to the fiscal pact signed by 25 EU leaders.
At the same time, they used the report to run down Mr Hollande and his policies on Europe.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who trails Mr Hollande in opinion polls, said the report in the German weekly Der Spiegel of a formal agreement by leaders not to meet his rival before the April- May election was nonsense.
The Spanish and British prime ministers also said the report was untrue.
“Don’t you think leaders have better things to do than agree pacts like that?” Mr Sarkozy asked yesterday. His spokeswoman accused Mr Hollande of “trying to invent a plot” and prime minister François Fillon told Europe1 radio that Mr Hollande was getting above himself.
“The idea that all these heads of government telephone each other to talk about him is an idea nobody who understands how governments work could believe,” Mr Fillon said.