After the display of disputes, the attempted start: Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz displayed this Sunday, January 22 in Paris a found unity of the “locomotive” Franco-German, destined to become “pioneer for the refoundation of Europe”.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the reconciliation treaty between the two countries, while the Old Continent has been plunged back into war for eleven months, the French President assured that this ” couple “ would do “the choice of the future”as he has “know how to do it at every turn of the European construction”.
Sixty years after the Elysée Treaty, a Franco-German couple in tension
“Germany and France, because they have cleared the path to reconciliation, must become pioneers for the rebuilding of our Europe”, he declared in a deliberately lyrical speech at the Sorbonne. He described the neighbors as “two souls in one chest”.
A “fraternal couple”
“The future, like the past, depends on the cooperation of our two countries”, “as the locomotive of a united Europe”capable of exceeding their “differences”abounded for his part the German Chancellor, evoking a “fraternal couple”.
He spun the metaphor of this “Franco-German engine” who often “purrs softly”who “do not walk with flattery” but by the “firm desire to always transform controversies” in “convergent action”.
The two leaders were then to convene a Franco-German council of ministers at the Elysée.
Outdated dissensions?
In October, this annual meeting had to be postponed due to disagreements on a series of key issues, from energy to defence, which came to light in the wake of the war led by Russia in Ukraine.
Result, the meeting between the leaders of the first two powers of the European Union, whose temperaments at the antipodes complicate this particular relationship where personal ties often make the difference, is this time scrutinized to detect their degree of agreement.
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Especially since a scent of misunderstanding has floated between them since Olaf Scholz succeeded Angela Merkel at the end of 2021, each annoyed by the initiatives taken by the other without prior consultation.
The date of the reunion is highly symbolic: sixty years to the day after the signing of the Elysée Treaty by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, this “founding act” of the “reconciliation” between two countries “who had been the bitterest enemies” but “decided to become the closest allies”said Emmanuel Macron.
Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron affirmed with one voice the objective, dear to the French president, of a more “sovereign”investing more in defense and industry.
Energy, war in Ukraine, industries…
The two leaders could discuss whether to send heavy tanks to kyiv, as pressure grows on Berlin to deliver its Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian army. At the Sorbonne, Olaf Scholz confined himself to assuring that France and Germany would continue “to provide Ukraine, for as long as necessary, with all the support it needs”. “Vladimir Putin’s imperialism will not win! »he hammered.
Like the deputy of the presidential party Benjamin Haddad, voices are raised in Paris for France to be ” on the initiative “ by sending a “limited number of Leclerc tanks to create momentum”.
France also warns against a ” de-industrialization “ if the EU does not retaliate in a muscular way, with substantial funding, to the massive American plan of subsidies in terms of renewable energies, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The president therefore hopes to rally the chancellor.
The latter, in his speech, said ” to share “ with Emmanuel Macron ” Goals “ aiming to do ” investments “ necessary for the Old Continent to become “a global center for the technologies of the future”and the first “climate neutral” in the world.
The two neighbors must also try to agree on European reforms to stem the surge in energy prices linked in particular to the war in Ukraine, and put forward joint projects in terms of innovation. A train ticket designed to encourage young people to travel between the two countries will also be launched.
Alongside the governments, parliamentary delegations from the two countries also met in Paris. The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and her Bundestag counterpart Bärbel Bas paid tribute at the Panthéon to Simone Veil, “a great European” and “a woman of convictions” which they said they wanted to wear “torch”.
