Francois Hollande will be sworn in as president of France only to see his political coronation overshadowed by a dispute over growth and austerity in Europe when he flies to Berlin for a tense first meeting with Angela Merkel.
Francois Hollande will be sworn in as president of France on Tuesday only to see his political coronation overshadowed by a dispute over growth and austerity in Europe when he flies to Berlin for a tense first meeting with Angela Merkel.
The 57-year-old socialist will ride to the Elysee Palace in a hybrid Citroen DS5 and be greeted on the steps by Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative he beat in elections on May 6, who received German leader Merkel's backing.
But the victory ceremony will be brief, as he must almost immediately leave for a bruising clash this evening with Merkel over the crisis in the eurozone - a showdown which, as his campaign manager, Pierre Moscovici, put it, could set his presidency on a trajectory of "success or failure".
Hollande has championed the idea of renegotiating the fiscal pact that enshrines budgetary discipline in the eurozone to include a growth chapter.
Merkel insists the pact, signed by 25 of the 27 EU countries and already ratified in some, must stay as it is.
The German chancellor has promised to welcome him with "open arms" and that the visit was just a "getting-to-know-you" gathering but Benoit Hamon, the Socialist Party spokesman set the stage for a clash by saying: "We didn't vote for an EU president called Merkel, who makes sovereign decisions for the rest of us."
The two could also be on a collision course over eurobonds.
Hollande initially argued that eurozone countries' debt should be pooled but, faced with a wall of resistance from Merkel, he is now calling for new EU "project bonds" to fund large infra-structure projects.
He wants these to be funded partly by existing EU funds and partly by the European Investment Bank - a proposal that could put him on a collision course with Britain.
There is also divergence over the role of the European Central Bank, as Hollande wants it to be more proactive in lending, while Merkel staunchly defends its independence.
Neither can be seen to give too much ground due to domestic considerations.
Hollande's Socialist Party must win a majority in parliamentary elections on June 10 and 17 to stand a chance of implementing his campaign promises, and his leftist allies are even more vocal on reversing austerity. But he also preaches fiscal discipline, promising to balance the budget by 2017.
Angela Merkel, meanwhile, is looking increasingly isolated at home after her Christian Democrat party suffered its worst defeat yet in the bellwether state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
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