Last October Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, discovered that the US security services regularly listened to her mobile phone when she was her country’s opposition leader. Three months after that revelation emerged from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, her anger remains raw.
President Barack Obama has sought to reduce tensions, pledging last month that Washington will no longer spy on the leaders of many allied nations. That went down well with President François Hollande of France, who told Mr Obama last week that “mutual trust has been restored” between the US and his country.
But a still frustrated Ms Merkel is pressing ahead with two goals. She is demanding that the US agree a blanket no-spying pledge with Germany, similar to the agreement that she believes to be in place with the UK and other close US allies under the “five eyes” agreement. Last weekend she threw her weight behind proposals for the creation of European data networks that can keep emails and other communications stored on the European side of the Atlantic, far from the NSA’s prying eyes.