Mara Delius

 It was a calm, cold day when Barack Obama invited François Hollande to Monticello, Virginia, the grand mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, supporter of the French Revolution and early US envoy to France. “Monticello reflects Jefferson’s affection for the people of France, the long-standing relations between our two democracies, and the shared values we hold dear: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the White House memo explained.

‘How hospitable will Germans be now that travel restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians have been lifted?’

‘Angela Merkel’s mobile phone is her instrument of power. What happens when this tool of democracy is subverted by our most important ally?’

‘This is a German election and a Brit may argue you wouldn’t expect a flamboyant spectacle. But the current lethargy is a peculiar one’

The feud at Germany’s most respected publishing house reads like a passage from Vanity Fair written by Thomas Mann

‘At the election in September, Germans will have to decide whether Angela
Merkel’s modesty and prudence are proof enough of her virtue’

‘Despite the Turkish origins of most of the victims, the Munich court failed to allocate a single press seat in the Zschäpe murder trial to a Turkish media outlet’

‘Germany is seeing a definite increase in Euroscepticism—and now it’s coming from the Left too’

‘”You could certainly fill a dirndl,” the elder statesman said, before taking her hand, kissing it and propositioning her’