Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris for a last working dinner at the Élysée
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron prepare for a joint press conference in Berlin on June 18, 2021 (illustrative image).
AFP - JOHN MACDOUGALL
Text by: Pascal Thibaut Follow
3 min
This will undoubtedly be the last meeting between the French president and the German chancellor before the elections in ten days in Germany which will mark the departure from power of Angela Merkel.
Angela Merkel will have worked for sixteen years with four French presidents.
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From our correspondent in Berlin
,
A priori, the style and the ideas oppose them.
Angela Merkel is sobriety made woman.
His charisma is, “modest”, his rhetorical talent just as much.
Sleeve effects and grand visions are not his forte.
She is a power mechanic who patiently fixes problems without drawing great perspectives.
It is therefore the opposite of the Macron style, a style which, like Obama's at the start, seems suspect to him.
On European issues, the many reforms proposed by the French President in his
speech at the Sorbonne
, two days after the German elections in 2017, contrast with their content with the reservations of Angela Merkel.
It is indeed a question of a more in-depth integration of Europe, a budget of the euro zone, a mutualisation of certain European debts.
Files that annoy
The Merkel - Macron relationship is first marked by French impatience and German reluctance. The Merkel government did not react much, caught up in lengthy negotiations during the fall and winter of 2017 - 2018 to form a new government. Enthusiasm is reduced among the Christian Democrats. Angela Merkel is in a bad way on the home front and must spare troops reluctant to go further with Paris. Later, certain positions taken by Emmanuel Macron will irritate Berlin whether it is about the attempt to reconcile with Putin, his statements on the brain death of NATO or his hard line towards Turkey. Berlin feels like it has to pick up the mess. Emmanuel Macron speaks of a "
fruitful confrontation
To evoke the bilateral relationship.
A rapprochement between the two leaders
On European issues, a rapprochement has taken place.
In mid-2018, an agreement was reached on a budget for the Euro zone even if Paris only got a very modest amount from Berlin.
Two years later, the two countries present an initiative that leads to the European recovery plan which provides - something previously unthinkable for Germany - common debts.
An initiative led by parliamentarians.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle wants to revive bilateral relations.
A Franco-German parliamentary assembly is the symbol of this.
It will be important during tensions at the border during the pandemic.
Industrial projects are progressing despite tensions, starting with the
Scaf, the future Franco-German fighter plane
, but also for the batteries of electric cars.
Industrial policy is not a taboo in Germany.
The term “
European sovereignty
” launched by Macron is used here.
In an international survey presented this week, Europeans prefer Angela Merkel to Emmanuel Macron in a possible election of a president of Europe.
The Chancellor is leading the race in Germany, which is moderately surprising.
But also in France with 32% for Angela Merkel and 26% for Emmanuel Macron.
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Germany
Angela Merkel
our selection
France
Emmanuel Macron