It didn't take long after her plane landed in Lisbon for it to become clear just how poorly some in Portugal regard Angela Merkel. "Hitler go home," read one banner held up by a man standing on the sidewalk as the German chancellor's motorcade passed by. A few meters further, a person waved a black flag and two others stretched their arms out to give the Hitler salute.
It wouldn't be off the mark to suggest that the location of the day's most important meeting was a well-chosen one. Forte de São Julião da Barra, a fortress with massive walls and moats, located kilometers away from Portugal's capital city on a cliff with a sweeping view of the Atlantic Ocean, is virtually impregnable. It is the country's most important sea fortress and serves today as the headquarters of the Portuguese Defense Ministry. It is to this fortress that Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho invited the chancellor on Monday for her first official visit to the debt-plagued country at the southwestern edge of Europe. » | Philipp Wittrock in Lisbon | Tuesday, November 13, 2012
