France and Germany, “two souls in the same chest”

(Paris) After the breakdown, the attempted start: Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz showed Sunday in Paris their desire to work together in the service of the “refoundation” of Europe, including in the response to be made to the massive plan of subsidies to American industry, without overcoming all their differences, particularly on European defence.

Both remained very evasive on their intention to deliver or not German Leopard and French Leclerc heavy tanks to Kyiv, the Chancellor being particularly under pressure in the matter in the face of the pressing demands of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On the occasion of the 60^e anniversary of the reconciliation treaty between the two countries, while the Old Continent has been plunged back into war for eleven months, the two leaders have stormed references to Franco-German “friendship” and “fraternity”, keys to “European construction” for six decades.

“Germany and France, because they have cleared the path to reconciliation, must become pioneers for the rebuilding of our Europe”, insisted Emmanuel Macron in a willingly lyrical speech at the Sorbonne, describing the two neighbors as ” two souls in one breast”.

“The future, like the past, is based on the cooperation of our two countries”, “as the locomotive of a united Europe”, capable of overcoming their “differences”, added the German Chancellor, spinning the metaphor of this “Franco-German engine” which often “purrs softly”, but which works only through the “firm will to always transform controversies” into “convergent action”.

At the end of a Franco-German Council of Ministers at the Elysée, the two leaders endeavored to display all points of convergence and announced progress in European hydrogen infrastructures, with the extension of the Franco-Portuguese-Spanish H2Med pipeline to Germany.

Nothing is excluded

They have thus defined a “common line” in favor of an “ambitious and rapid” European response to American industrial subsidies in the field of energy transition, Emmanuel Macron declared during a joint press conference, without specifying how this effort will be finance.

This action must be based on “simplicity” and “greater visibility on our aid systems”, added the Head of State, who has been maneuvering in recent months to convince European countries, and in particular Germany, to embark on a plan just as massive as that of the United States to avoid the deindustrialisation of Europe.

Regarding the delivery of Leclerc tanks to Ukraine, “nothing is excluded”, declared Emmanuel Macron, stressing that this had to be assessed “collectively”, a refrain taken up by the Chancellor.

“The way we have acted in the past is always closely coordinated with our friends and allies and we will continue to act according to the concrete situation,” said Olaf Scholz, with particular reference to the United States and France.

But the two leaders have made no secret of the fact that their positions have remained very far apart on a European anti-missile shield project that Berlin wishes to carry out with existing Israeli and American technologies, while Paris is pleading for a European solution, on the basis of a Franco-Italian system.

“Maximum Sovereignty”

The Chancellor reaffirmed that it was absolutely necessary to “take into account what already exists, without having to wait too long to obtain certain armaments”.

The French president told him that he wanted “in the coming weeks” to work with Germany and Poland in particular to try to bring out a “common strategy” and “to move towards the maximum of technological and industrial sovereignty” on this question.

In October, the Franco-German Council of Ministers had to be postponed due to disagreements over a series of key issues, from energy to defence, which came to light in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Result, the meeting between the leaders of the first two powers of the European Union, whose temperaments at the antipodes complicate this particular relationship where personal ties often make the difference, was scrutinized closely.

Especially since a scent of misunderstanding has floated between them since Olaf Scholz succeeded Angela Merkel at the end of 2021, each annoyed by the initiatives taken by the other without prior consultation.

The date of the reunion is highly symbolic: sixty years to the day after the signing of the Élysée Treaty by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, this “founding act” of “reconciliation” between two countries “which had been the most bitter enemies”, but “decided to become the closest allies”, said Emmanuel Macron.