Le choix de Cameron : Paris et Berlin

Le choix de Cameron : Paris et Berlin

Le 12 mai 2010, le Daily Telegraph publiait un article venimeux sur l’indifférence affirmée des Français pour les Britanniques, et particulièrement le Premier ministre Cameron. (Parallèlement, on annonçait à grands renforts de divers tralalas le “reset” des “spécial relationships”, avec une invitation de BHO faite à Cameron de se rendre à Washington en juillet prochain. Les deux nouvelles se confortaient parfaitement dans l'esprit du Telegraph, d'un pro-américanisme pur et dur.)

«A senior member of his centre-Right party told The Daily Telegraph the president lost patience with UK under Gordon Brown and had no intention of trying to forge deeper ties with David Cameron.

»The source said: “More than any other French leader, Mr Sarkozy relies on building close personal ties to forge political partnerships. This he honestly tried to do with Gordon Brown at the beginning of his presidency in 2007 – he would now say naively as the rapprochement didn't really happen and the chemistry wasn't there.” As a result, Mr Sarkozy has given more weight to the traditional Franco-German axis that has been the cornerstone of European politics for decades.

»Now the president has a “once bitten, twice shy” attitude to British leaders, the senior right-wing MP claimed. “He's not even going to bother to try with Cameron,” he said. His comments came as Downing Street announced Mr Sarkozy would be the first foreign leader to meet Mr Cameron when he comes to London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle's famous Appeal of June 18, 1940…»

Aujourd’hui, 19 mai 2010, EUObserver annonce que Cameron est en déplacement demain et après-demain, que ses deux premières visites sont successivement pour Sarkozy (à Paris) et pour Merkel (à Berlin)….

«In his first foreign trip as Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron will later this week meet his French and German counterparts, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, after years of faltering relations with the two countries as leader of the opposition. Mr Cameron is due to meet the French president on Thursday in Paris while chancellor Merkel will receive him in Berlin the following day.

»The highly symbolic trip is part of an orchestrated attempt by the Conservative-led government to convince EU allies that the broadly eurosceptic Tories are more constructive and open than their reputation in mainland Europe would have one believe. […]

»…[S]ince taking up the reins of power along with the Liberal Democrats last week, the Conservatives have made several gestures towards their EU partners. Their coalition government programme drops some of the key proposals of the party's pre-election programme that had made many officials in Brussels wary, such as repatriating powers in the area of EU social and employment legislation.

»Key ministers have promised constructive engagement with Europe, while foreign minister William Hague, from the more robustly eurosceptic wing of the party, recently wrote a conciliatory piece for Europe's World, the house journal of the Brussels-based Friends of Europe think-tank.

»The Financial Times notes the surprise around Brussels tables when Chancellor George Osborne turned up at the early hour of 8am for an EU finance ministers meeting, and writes of the “astonishment” of colleagues when UK farm minister Caroline Spelman worked the meeting room speaking in both French and German.»

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