The air was stuffy in the French press room of the European Council building, which was crowded with journalists. Everyone wanted to see the new French president during his first press conference after a European Union summit. Shortly after 1 o'clock on Thursday morning, François Hollande held court just as his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, once had, explaining his "vision for growth" for nearly an hour.
In the room next door was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In front of her were just a few rows of chairs and some cameras, and the room was half empty. She had decided not to hold a full press conference. Instead, she gave a brief statement, answered two questions and left after five minutes. She apparently knew that she didn't have much of a chance against the appeal of her new French counterpart. It almost seemed as if she was happy to concede the stage to Hollande without a fight.
The parallel appearances in Brussels in the early hours of Thursday had symbolic value. It was the first EU summit in years which was not dominated by Merkel. Instead, Hollande set the tone at the informal dinner attended by the leaders of the 27 EU member states, even if he only spoke briefly himself and showed surprise at the lengthy comments of some of his colleagues. » | Carsten Volkery in Brussels | Thursday, May 24, 2012
