It's not so much the self-promotion that seems to drive Sarkozy's foreign policy -- officials at the chancellery and at the foreign ministry in Berlin have become used to that. For instance, he claimed that the EU's new Lisbon Treaty came about mainly due to his superior negotiating skills. He also made sure the world was aware that he alone was to thank for the release of five Bulgarian nurses from Libyan prisons last summer. Sarkozy likes to invoke the "great friendship" that he insists unites him with "dear Angela," but what he then says and does is often anything but friendly, at least from a German perspective.
But now Sarkozy's impulsiveness has truly infuriated the Germans. Many in Berlin now wonder if he is at all interested in good relations with his German neighbors after he cancelled a long-planned meeting with Merkel in the Bavarian town of Straubing, originally scheduled to take place on Monday. Sarkozy, his aides said, was unable to attend the meeting because of his "overbooked schedule," as if a meeting with the German chancellor were some minor event. Meanwhile, Sarkozy traveled to South Africa, as planned, and he apparently found enough wiggle room on his calendar for an excursion to Chad. Instead of the Straubing summit, the two will meet on Monday night in Hanover for a brief working dinner after opening the IT trade fair CeBIT together.
A tête-à-tête between German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück and his French counterpart Christine Lagarde, which had been scheduled for last Tuesday, also had to be cancelled. Sarkozy, who had scheduled last-minute visits to a number of factories in the French countryside, wanted Lagarde to accompany him instead.
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