PARIS — Socialist Francois Hollande took over as France’s president Tuesday and jetted off to Berlin hours later for talks on Europe’s debt crisis — only to have his plane struck by lightning. No one was hurt.
It was a startling beginning for a man who promised to be a more “normal” president, and less flashy than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who was ousted by voters after a single term for his handling of a stagnant economy plagued by joblessness.
After the meeting in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hollande said only that they’ve agreed to discuss ways to generate economic growth in Europe.
Hollande said that “everything must be put on the table by everyone” that could promote growth.
During his campaign, Hollande called for a renegotiation of a budget-discipline pact which Merkel pushed for the continent.
Asked whether he is still demanding a renegotiation of the fiscal compact, he said he would be able to answer the question “at the end of this work.”
Earlier, after a succession of rain-drenched and pomp-filled ceremonial inauguration events in Paris, Hollande took off in a Falcon 7X aircraft for Berlin. After the plane was hit by lightning, it returned to the Villacoublay air base outside Paris as a precaution for inspection, Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Gachet said.
Defense officials say the president and his entourage were transferred to another aircraft, a Falcon 900, and left shortly thereafter. That made Hollande about an hour and a half late for his meeting with Merkel.
Hollande was following a postwar custom for new French leaders to reach out to their German counterparts to solidify European unity. Right before leaving for Berlin, Hollande named a moderate, German-friendly member of his Socialist party, Jean-Marc Ayrault, as his prime minster.
The new French president and Merkel are in different camps when it comes to solving Europe’s debt crisis. While new figures Tuesday showed the 17-nation eurozone has avoided a new recession, thanks largely to Germany, political turmoil in Greece was reviving fears about the fate of their shared euro currency.
Hollande, elected May 6 as France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995, rode to the presidency on a wave of resurgent leftist sentiment amid Europe’s debt woes and protests against capitalism around the world.
The 57-year-old displayed his populist touch in between Tuesday’s ceremonies, stopping for handshakes — and even a kiss — with adoring fans.
