Hollande unconcerned at no meeting
Source: Agencies |
March 5, 2012, Monday
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FRENCH Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande said yesterday he was unconcerned by a report that conservative European leaders had agreed to shun his campaign and he vowed to stick with his plan to renegotiate an EU budget treaty.
German weekly magazine Spiegel reported that Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Italy's technocrat leader Mario Monti had agreed not to meet Hollande because of his opposition to the fiscal pact signed by 25 European Union leaders in Brussels last week.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who did not sign the treaty, later joined the agreement among the leaders of Europe's main powers, the magazine wrote, without citing sources.
A German government spokeswoman played down the report of a pact against Hollande - who holds a comfortable lead in the polls ahead of France's two-round election in April and May.
"Every government leader decides for themselves whether they will meet Mr Hollande," the spokeswoman said.
She added that Merkel - who has made public her support for French conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy - had no plans at present to meet with Hollande in Berlin.
During his visit to London last week to seek support from French expatriate voters - during which Hollande insisted he was not "dangerous" for the city's large financial sector - the Socialist candidate met with British opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband. But he was not invited for talks with Prime minister Cameron.
German weekly magazine Spiegel reported that Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Italy's technocrat leader Mario Monti had agreed not to meet Hollande because of his opposition to the fiscal pact signed by 25 European Union leaders in Brussels last week.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who did not sign the treaty, later joined the agreement among the leaders of Europe's main powers, the magazine wrote, without citing sources.
A German government spokeswoman played down the report of a pact against Hollande - who holds a comfortable lead in the polls ahead of France's two-round election in April and May.
"Every government leader decides for themselves whether they will meet Mr Hollande," the spokeswoman said.
She added that Merkel - who has made public her support for French conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy - had no plans at present to meet with Hollande in Berlin.
During his visit to London last week to seek support from French expatriate voters - during which Hollande insisted he was not "dangerous" for the city's large financial sector - the Socialist candidate met with British opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband. But he was not invited for talks with Prime minister Cameron.
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