“They were never able to tame each other”: in Berlin, Macron will try to ease tensions with Scholz

“We are certainly approaching a moment in our Europe when it will be appropriate not to be cowardly,” Emmanuel Macron said March 5 from Prague, Czech Republic. Over the Rhine, where we naturally felt targeted, this sentence was taken as an insult… Another one. The attempt is just the latest episode in a recent verbal escalation between France and Germany over aid to Ukraine.

This Friday, March 15, in Berlin, the French President and the German Chancellor will seek to ease these tensions. The task promises to be delicate. On February 24, the Franco-German quarrel took on rare proportions when the head of state said that he did not rule out sending troops to the warring country following the Paris Conference to support Kyiv.

“Send a positive signal to Europe”

The German Chancellor then rushed to publicly disavow this on behalf of the EU and NATO. And Paris is smoking. Olaf Scholz, of course, did not pick up tweezers, but he had a reason to scald himself. Emmanuel Macron not only did not warn his allies, but he again, without naming it, hurled barbs at this Germany, which only wanted to provide “sleeping bags and helmets” at the beginning of the war and which at first always answers “never”. , never”…

In Berlin, we evaluate these barbs very moderately and value accusations of “cowardice” even less, and Germany is the second supplier of weapons and economic assistance to Kyiv after the United States. Olaf Scholz has also repeatedly criticized France for “insufficient” efforts in this area, although he has refrained from publicly mentioning this.

“This series of oratorical duels is symptomatic of deep flaws in Franco-German relations, even though there is clearly still a desire to work together and strengthen ties,” analyzes Jeanette Suess, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations. (Ifri).

In Brussels we expect a lot from Friday’s meeting. “If France and Germany cannot agree on assistance to Ukraine, it will be a disaster,” said a French source in Brussels. Macron and Scholz have never been able to tame each other, but they should send a positive message to the rest of Europe by overcoming their personal difficulties.” Thus, the two leaders have deliberately incompatible temperaments: the president is talkative, hot-tempered and wants to be “disruptive,” while the chancellor is silent, very reserved, if not strict.

Disagreements in the military sphere, but not only…

Of course, the crisis that the tandem is experiencing is not just characteristic, it is structural. While both countries share the goal of supporting Ukraine “as long as it takes,” their views diverge on the military front. Emmanuel Macron advocates “European sovereignty,” while Olaf Scholz views the issue solely through the prism of an alliance with the United States.

The tension goes far beyond this topic. The two countries have clashed in Brussels in recent months over numerous issues such as energy and debt. In fact, this malaise dates back to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the consequences of which shook the German economic model and forced the country to focus on its own interests, even if this meant ignoring the European stage. This period also corresponds to the emergence of a government coalition led by Olaf Scholz – between the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals – whose disorderly functioning is another reason for tensions with Paris.

“Sometimes when you ask the Germans a question, you get three different answers. And Scholz is not capable of judging,” they grumble in Paris. Last October, the chancellor and president declared a “moral duty” to “understand each other better” at the end of a seminar in Hamburg between the two governments that already intended to get bilateral relations back on track. But the French-German couple clearly needed more than one therapy session.