Behind the Macron-Merkel wrestling, the challenge of European leadership

The spokesperson of the French government, Sibeth Ndiaye, may well ensure that "there is no question of arm wrestling", which is currently played between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel yet resembles strongly.

The two leaders have clearly expressed their disagreements, Tuesday, May 28, about the future president of the European Commission. While the German Chancellor is in favor of respect for the rule of "Spitzenkandidat" and the candidacy of his compatriot Manfred Weber, official candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), the French president wishes to take liberties with this system of Appointment and put forward three names for the post: the Danish Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the French chief negotiator for the Brexit Michel Barnier and the former Dutch diplomat Frans Timmermans.

The "Spitzenkandidat" formula, that is to say the "leading candidate", was imposed in 2014 by the Parliament on governments that were mostly hostile to this mode of nomination, which dispossessed them of part of their power. . Heads of State and Government can, however, nominate another candidate, but MPs then have the power to refuse to invest the new Commission, a sufficient threat to be a deterrent.

Statement by President @EmmanuelMacron following the informal dinner of Heads of State and Government of the European Union. pic.twitter.com/DAD0DEGKKd

"There is need to build something else, a new project, which is the image of what the European people has chosen", pleaded Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday night, calling for "not to replicate the old habits". "The key is that the people who will be in the most sensitive positions share the project, they are the most charismatic, inventive, competent possible."

Officially, Manfred Weber is not legitimate in the eyes of the French president because he has never held an executive position, either at European level or at home, in Germany. Unofficially, Emmanuel Macron settles his accounts and tries to impose his views on the future of the European Union.

Discrepancies between Macron and Merkel spread in the press

"There is a personal animosity of the French President vis-à-vis Manfred Weber, and against the EPP and the European Parliament in general, because he rejected Macron's proposal to make transnational lists with the seats of the British MPs ", explains Patrick Martin-Genier, a teacher at Sciences Po, EU specialist, author of" Does Europe have a future? " (Studyrama ed.), contacted by France 24.

Manfred Weber has also received rather coldly all of Emmanuel Macron's proposals for EU reforms, notably those concerning the strengthening of the monetary union. And in a Europe where Germany already holds a considerable place, it also has the defect of being German.

>> Read: The battle for the presidency of the European Commission is launched

"This is the place of France and the leadership in the next five years in the European Union that is played at the moment, says Patrick Martin-Genier." Angela Merkel, also, did not support the proposals Emmanuel Macron and there is a kind of open conflict between the two leaders. "

Both of them do not hesitate, in fact, to spread their disagreements by medias interposés. On May 15, Angela Merkel admitted to having a "conflictual relationship" with the French president, while the latter responded, later in the evening, to assume a "fruitful confrontation" with the Chancellor in order to "build a compromise".

"Even if there were also differences between Chirac and Schröder, between Sarkozy and Merkel or between Holland and Merkel, usually the French and German leaders did not show them in public, said Patrick Martin-Genier. go back to Willy Brandt and Georges Pompidou to find something similar, we are witnessing a struggle of influence and power. "

"Macron got a lot of people back in Europe"

The question is now whether Emmanuel Macron has the means to bend Angela Merkel on this issue. "If both remain in the names where they are, we will have a blockage," he warned late Tuesday, suggesting that he was ready to go to the end of his approach.

The head of state must therefore find allies and met several European leaders in recent days, including the Dutch Prime Ministers, Mark Rutte, Spanish, Pedro Sanchez, Portuguese, Antonio Costa or Belgian, Charles Michel.

>> To see: "European elections: towards a political recomposition?"

"Macron's problem is that he has gotten very busy in Europe," notes Patrick Martin-Genier, who met the Visegrad group on Tuesday before the European Council, but it is hard to see Poland or Hungary support him as he has spent his time stigmatizing these countries for two years. "

An agreement will have to be reached before the summit of 20 and 21 June, during which the name of the presidential candidate of the European Commission will be revealed. It will be part of a skilfully balanced "package" of distribution of major European responsibilities - President of the European Council, Head of EU Diplomacy, President of the European Central Bank - according to geographical, demographic, political sensitivity and parity woman-man.