Emmanuel Macron's election victory in this gloomy year is also the best news in a long time for Germany.

A prosperous partnership in Europe would not have been possible with President Le Pen, and certainly not a front against the aggressive war of its sponsor and longtime role model Vladimir Putin.

Nevertheless, the Paris result should still challenge the relieved Berlin.

Faced with a staggeringly large group of hardened right-wing extremists and an even larger group of malcontents in their slipstream, Macron has not sought his salvation in tactical Euroscepticism, as so many European politicians have done in similar distress.

Rather, he had the guts to promote the EU as a solution to the problems of globalization, both material and identity-political.

A lot also depends on Scholz's turning point for Macron

Now he has to "deliver".

So the EU has to deliver, and that can't be done without Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

That's why a lot depends on the Berlin "turning point" for Macron.

If Scholz manages to ensure that Germany develops into a pillar of European sovereignty, both militarily and politically, then the Franco-German engine would gain some traction.

On the other hand, for Paris, the question arises as to what fiscal policy conclusions Berlin is drawing from the debt-financed rearmament: will the floodgates opened during the pandemic remain open, or will German austerity return to Europe?

Macron is the first French president since 2002 to be given a second term by the French.

The downside to his triumph is his shame: after five years under his leadership, two out of five French people thought Marine Le Pen was the better choice.

But Macron wouldn't be Macron if he let that slow him down.

His lesson is don't curry favor with the bitter, fight for your values.

Berlin finds a partner in Paris with five years of experience but as much energy as after the first win.