14 DAY TRIAL // The NSA scandal might be disastrous for US diplomatic relations, but it’s doing wonders for European Union leaders.
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have found common grounds – their complaints about Obama.
The two politicians haven’t necessarily been on the best of terms, especially since they got off on the wrong foot, with Merkel supporting Hollande’s contra candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the presidential elections.
Later on, they started getting on, uniting their efforts to patch things up when it comes to the European Union and the economic crisis that has taken over most countries on the continent. Nowadays, they’ve added another subject to the things they have in common – they’ve each been spied on by the United States.
In the past several months, reports indicated the NSA had been snooping on German and French citizens, collecting millions of phone call records and metadata. Most recently, it was revealed the American intelligence agency actually collected over 70 million phone records made by business people and politicians in France.
Further back, the US was exposed to be spying on European Union diplomats, as well as ambassadors from over 80 countries and the United Nations.
Most recently, however, reports indicated the NSA could have been snooping in on Merkel’s mobile phone. The issue isn’t exactly surprising, considering, as I’ve said before, they have in fact tapped into the phone of Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, but also of two Mexican leaders.
Demands for answers have been made, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be received. US president Barack Obama has tried to assuage concerns of both the French and German leaders, but with very little success.
Evidence to this stands the ongoing attitude the two leaders have in front of the United States and the actions their governments have taken following the conversations they had with Obama.
On Thursday and Friday, Merkel and Hollande will get the chance to meet face to face at the European summit, which means they’ll probably put together a plan that can’t be good news for the US-EU relations.