For the last time, Angela Merkel at the head of the European Union

Angela Merkel takes over today, and for the last time in her immense career, the Presidency of the European Union. This is a sort of European coronation for one who, until recently, had never shown overflowing enthusiasm towards the European Union. Germany was regularly accused of being as selfish as it was powerful, of being more preoccupied with its national interests than with those of the collective of 28 or 27 countries on the continent. Of course, Angela Merkel was the good student of Europe, but she did not appear as the leader of Europe.

Angela Merkel has changed her judgment on Europe: she no longer hesitates to say that what is good for Europe is good for Germany. And then, the chancellor changed in the eyes of others: by accepting the idea pushed by Emmanuel Macron of a massive money mobilization in Brussels, she broke the prohibition of European debt, and opened the way to the creation of a recovery fund which will benefit all the countries of the continent, good and bad students, without distinction.

And that, France adores. The idea that we can do even more debt, and especially a debt that does not fall directly on us, that we do not see, that is housed elsewhere, is the dream. Bruno Le Maire has just given a new example. The Minister of Finance proposes that the equivalent of 150 billion euros born from the health crisis be confined, locked in a sort of separate box.

France can do this very well. Clémenceau said that in France, "if you want to bury a problem, appoint a commission". He could say today: "If you want to bury a debt, create a fund". This is what we did with the huge social security debts: we created Cades. Not seen, not taken, it was no longer really the State's debt. This time the idea is the same: the sums put in by the government to fight the effects of the epidemic are so huge that it is better to put them out of sight. In technocratic language, it is said that they will be confined. The problem is that, wherever they are housed, or confined, they are always debts.

The Court of Auditors just yesterday published its annual report on public finances. And she warns, she warns, she calls attention, she signals, she warns - I don't know what term to use so much the Court of Auditors is moderate in its criticisms. Meanwhile, Germany is already talking about the stages of repayment of the sums, also gigantic, that Berlin too has thrown in the fight against the consequences of the epidemic. The difference is that before the Coronavirus, Germany had largely deleveraged, and that today gives it much more latitude to overcome the economic crisis. You will see, there will always be one to think that Germany is selfish.