Paradigm Shift in German Foreign Policy

Merkel is now the first chancellor to have abandoned this principle on an important issue. She has made it clear that there are German interests and European interests, and that they are not necessarily the same. It is a paradigm shift in Germany's European policy. And Brussels is not the only place where Merkel is suspected of being more concerned with the coming state parliamentary election in North Rhine-Westphalia than with European unity.
Der Spiegel