Je t'aime, ich auch nicht

摘要

When Germany's Helmut Kohl and France's Francois Mitterrand held hands at the battlefields of Verdun 20 years ago, it was a high point of Franco-German reconciliation. When their successors, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Jacques Chirac, gather in Normandy on June 6th to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day, their meeting will be equally moving and symbolic. It will be the first time a German leader has participated in D-Day celebrations, and will be followed by a Franco-German "reconciliation ceremony" at the Caen Memorial Museum. Yet, this moment could in fact mark the beginning of a more difficult period between France and Germany. The remarkable friendship spanning over 50 years between the two countries has had its ups and downs. Indeed, the countries' current leaders got off to a bad start. When the centre-left Mr Schroeder became chancellor in 1998, he spent more time courting Britain's Tony Blair. President Chirac, expecting the German conservatives to oust Mr Schroeder at the polls, concentrated his efforts on them. The result was stalemate, both between the two countries and within the European Union.