The French president heads to Germany on Sunday for a two-day state visit, at a time when relations between the European Union’s two economic and political powerhouses are in decline.
As Emmanuel Macron prepares to travel to Germany for a state visit from Sunday, May 26, to Tuesday, May 28, the French president and his host, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, will once again be keen to revive a deteriorating France-Germany relationship.
Given the challenges facing Europe – the war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, economic stagnation vis-à-vis the United States and China, global warming, etc. – the stakes are high, as the vitality of this relationship is crucial to the dynamics of the continent.
Following the European elections on June 6-9, will Paris and Berlin be able to breathe new life into their relationship?
The task is made all the more difficult by the fact that neither France nor Germany is likely to be in a position of strength on the European stage in the coming months.
Since Scholz took over the chancellorship in December 2021, he has been only moderately involved in Brussels, and there is little reason for this to change – quite the contrary, in fact. As for Macron, he will have a much harder time imposing French ideas in the three years remaining to him at the Elysée.
On both sides of the Rhine, political capital and energy could be in short supply to bring about change in a Europe threatened from all sides.
