BERLIN — It's an old story: Impetuous boy meets staid girl, who rolls her eyes at his shenanigans, then succumbs to his charms.
Into the sunset -- or off to the Élysée Palace -- they ride.
As the eurozone threatens to crumple, the strength of one partnership has surprised many of the continent's watchers: the budding, unlikely personal and professional relationship between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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Everything about the two -- save a desire to prop up a currency union that has stumbled badly since last summer -- is opposite.
He is a whirlwind, married to a model famous for her nude photo shoots and onetime drug use; notorious for his last-minute scheduling changes, including the cancellation of this Friday, Jan. 20's mini-summit with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti; and the general folderol long associated with playboy Western leaders. He is passionate and instinctive, known for acting on gut feelings.
She is systematic, stern, pantsuit-favoring, and no-nonsense -- the archetype of East German pragmatism.
She is the strict headmistress to his easily distracted deputy. Together, they have somehow managed to discipline their unruly European neighbors -- notably Greece's George Papandreou and former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, who skirt-chased his country to the brink of bankruptcy. They have asked their eurozone counterparts to enforce tighter budget rules, which they say will be crucial as they work to stabilize the region in the coming months. At a December summit, they took their boldest step, unleashing the concept of a "fiscal compact" for the 17-member zone. And in what is arguably their boldest move to date, the two are arguing for a zone-wide financial-transaction tax to bolster coffers.
Just five years ago, says Yves Tiberghien, associate at the Center for European Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, based on the animosity between these two leaders of Europe's largest economies, "people were saying that was the end of the German-Franco relationship."
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