After the victory of French President Emmanuel Macron, the federal government has not allowed itself to be surpassed by any other Western country in terms of the variety and speed of its congratulations.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Macron via the short message service Twitter and in a telephone conversation, which government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said was the first telephone congratulations from a foreign head of government on Sunday evening.

Both had confirmed their will to continue the "close and trusting cooperation" between France and Germany;

this is currently particularly true with regard to developments in the Ukraine.

Scholz also interpreted Macron's election victory as a clear commitment by the French to Europe and the European unification process.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier saw Macron's election victory in similar motives.

Steinmeier wrote to the French President that he was pleased “that the majority of French voters support your pro-European course”.

He also stated: "Your re-election is also good news for us Germans." held” and “did not encounter an increasingly complex economic and international situation with supposedly simple answers” ​​but “with a clear compass”.

The Federal President emphasized the importance of Franco-German unity in view of the war in Ukraine:

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag Michael Roth (SPD) said: "All of Europe and Germany in particular can breathe a sigh of relief." Macron's re-election will remain a crucial test for the EU and Franco-German relations "spare an existential crisis," Roth said Editorial network Germany.

However, he suspected that Macron might have been weakened after his re-election because domestically he had to take into account the social milieu that gave populists like Marine Le Pen their votes.

This could also limit the President's "room for maneuver in European policy".

The SPD leader Saskia Esken also saw a danger in this: All of Europe has the task of making sure that people feel more noticed by politics than is currently "apparently the case in many places," she told Deutschlandfunk.

The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt, said that Germany and France should now act together in many policy areas.

He mentioned the strengthening of European foreign and security policy, the economic recovery of the EU after Corona and the effects of the sanctions against Russia and a joint strategy against climate change.

Good cooperation between Germany and France is "appreciated by our friends," said Hardt.

Former CDU chairman Armin Laschet called for

The federal government should "use the moment to give a new impetus to Franco-German and European relations".

There is now an opportunity to re-establish “the political union, including the security union”.

The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, also attached great importance to Macron's election victory.

Macron is looking for Franco-German and transatlantic solidarity, both of which are "essential" for peace in Europe.

Representatives of German business associations were relieved.

Macron's victory proves that the French have opted for France's future in the EU.

The major current challenges posed by climate change, the war in Ukraine and the cost of the pandemic called for an intact Franco-German relationship.