The Spree is not as majestic as the Seine, nor is Berlin's Television Tower quite the Eiffel Tower - but when it comes to politics and business, the fashion in the German capital is Parisian.

Berlin has been busy engineering taxpayer-financed bail-outs while denying some cash-strapped businesses help. Angela Merkel, chancellor, will this week effectively appoint the new owner of Opel, the German arm of General Motors. The German government, which had tried to maintain a hands-off attitude towards business now seems to have embraced industry policy à la française .