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President Macron, Chancellor Scholz, Prime Minister Tusk: Weimar triangle without edges

Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi / AP

At the end of this turbulent week, in which there was again a lot of argument about long-range weapons and about the question of how Germany and Europe should position itself in this war, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk stand in the Chancellery and suddenly are in incredible agreement .

“Our unity is our strength,” says the German Chancellor.

"We are coherent and willing," says the French president.

“We really agree,” says the Polish Prime Minister.

Longing for the strong symbol

As if as a sign of goodwill, the Chancellor moves away from his standing desk towards Tusk just as Tusk is about to give an acceptance speech to the host.

This symbolic gesture doesn't quite work out; Scholz gets stuck with his translation cable.

It quickly returns to its original place, a small scratch in this hymn of harmony.

At short notice, the German Chancellor invited his two counterparts to Berlin; the format for this meeting is called the Weimar Triangle.

Created a good 32 years ago on Goethe's birthday, when the then foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Roland Dumas and Krzysztof Skubiszewski, met for trilateral talks in Weimar.

The format is more of a symbolic event than an effective working meeting.

But it is precisely a strong symbol that this three-way friendship needs now, after all the irritations and contradictions of the past few days and weeks.

Just on Thursday, Macron reiterated his tough stance towards Russia in a television interview.

No options should be ruled out to prevent Russia from winning this war, said the French president.

Nor is sending ground troops into war zones.

All those who wanted to define red lines in supporting Ukraine, Macron continued, chose "not peace, but defeat."

Three promises

It could be read – once again – as a dig at the German Chancellor, who the day before had defended his rejection of the delivery of the long-range Taurus cruise missile during a government poll in the Bundestag.

At the same time, Macron drew a red line himself.

"We will never lead an offensive, we will never take the initiative," he said in the interview.

He wants to make it clear how quickly the situation in Ukraine can change.

Perhaps this insight was the basis on which Macron, Scholz and Tusk were able to reach an agreement at their short meeting in Berlin.

In the end, the Weimar Triangle presented itself without edges; at the end there were three concrete promises.

Scholz announced that even more weapons would be procured for Ukraine “from now on,” “on the entire global market.”

A “capabilities coalition” has also been agreed upon for long-range rocket artillery and is to be formed within the framework of the Ramstein Contact Group.

Since 2022, representatives from around 50 countries have regularly met at the US air force base in Rhineland-Palatinate to organize support for Ukraine.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday.

As a third measure, the three announced that they would expand the production of military equipment and also work with partners in Ukraine.

Violent irritation over Mützenich's demand

For the Chancellor, the meeting was also an opportunity to restart a debate that recently seemed to have slipped away from him.

Not only because the green and liberal coalition partners hardly made any effort to use diplomatic formulations to express their anger over Scholz's no to Taurus.

SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich caused severe irritation in the Bundestag on Thursday when he asked the question: "Isn't it time that we not only talk about how to wage a war, but also think about how to wage one?" Freeze war and end it later?

Aren’t these questions also politically important?”

It was Scholz himself who had created the aura of a peace chancellor for himself in the past few days.

He had repeatedly and rigorously spoken out against Macron's scenario ideas for NATO ground troops in Ukraine.

But did he also have a “freezing” of the war in mind?

Scholz assured the microphones that they would continue to support Ukraine, “as long as it takes”.

»We will not let up in our commitment.«

It sounds like an attempt to recapture a genie that, thanks to the SPD parliamentary group leader, is now out of the bottle.

Scholz will no longer be able to get rid of the mistrust that the Chancellor's party could at some point abandon the path of unshakable solidarity with Ukraine any time soon, despite all the assurances and symbolic gestures.

At the end of their appearance in front of the press, the three hold hands, Macron on the left, Tusk on the right, Scholz in the middle.

It is clearly not the most pleasant moment for the Chancellor, for whom physical gestures of familiarity are rather alien.

And yet he will know how important such a picture is now.

In fact, the widely praised unity within the Weimar Triangle could only be a snapshot.

Next week, Macron said, when we meet again in the European Council, we will continue to discuss the plan for a European defense strategy.

But this is linked to investments, emphasized the French President.

From previous statements we know what he means by this: a common debt for the EU to finance the necessary rearmament within Europe.

An idea that hardly fits with the current budget policy of the traffic light.