Germany amused by French candidate Fillon’s Cold War map

German media reacted with amusement Wednesday after French presidential front-runner Francois Fillon published a map in a campaign brochure that showed a divided Germany, 26 years after reunification.
“Something is wrong” in the former prime minister’s campaign booklet, noted news channel N24, while conservative daily Die Welt pointed at “the embarrassing error in Francois Fillon’s programme”.
The Neue Presse saw a return to the Cold War era and the days of the communist German Democratic Republic, writing that “in Fillon’s programme, the GDR still exists”.
“That would make Putin happy,” tweeted Reto Knobel in a social media reference also to Fillon’s position of a new rapprochement with Moscow.
On page 59 of the policy booklet issued ahead of next May’s election, a map of Europe shows a border splitting Germany into east and west as it did before reunification on November 10, 1990.
Fillon is hoping to clinch the nomination for the Republicans party over the centrist Alain Juppe at the weekend.
If he succeeds, he is likely to face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the knockout finals of next year’s election.