Czech officials suspect the Élysée of inspiring a series of articles in the French press critical of their leadership

The bitter infighting highlights tensions over Europe's response to the financial crisis and underlines fears in some quarters that France will use the downturn to undermine market and competition law inside the EU, which is the world's largest trading zone

writes Stephen Castle (as France gives a €6.5 billion lifeline to its carmakers ("The Europeans … have criticized American support for General Motors and Chrysler [and U.S. steel producers], but it may be harder for them to press that case internationally when their own countries are pursuing similar policies")).

An emergency European Union summit meeting on the economic crisis was announced Monday after a fierce public rift between France and the Czech Republic prompted accusations that Paris was promoting protectionism and undermining Europe's single market.

In Prague, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, made a rare and blunt attack on a fellow leader after President Nicolas Sarkozy last week criticized French car companies that relocate to Eastern Europe to cut costs.

For those Americans always wringing their hands over what French (and European) élites and citizens think of their country, though, here is the money quote (the one giving an idea of how French élites and citizens form "their" opinions and viewpoints in the first place):

…the tension has been building for weeks, and Czech officials suspect the Élysée of inspiring a series of articles in the French press critical of their leadership.