Fillon Calls Hollande Approach to Merkel Clumsy, FT Reports

Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that President Francois Hollande’s handling of relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “clumsy,” the Financial Times reported in an interview.

“Relations between France and Germany are being damaged because there is too great a divergence between the economic policy of France and the policy of Germany,” Fillon was quoted as saying by the Financial Times in an interview.

Hollande acts as if Merkel has already lost next year’s election, Fillon said. “He thinks he is attacking Ms Merkel but Germans take it as an attack on Germany as a whole,” Fillon said.

Fillon is vying for the leadership of France’s main oppostion UMP party.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dick Schumacher at dschumacher@bloomberg.net