Europe: France has high hopes for a Chancellor Merz

Handelsblatt Europe: France has high hopes for a Chancellor Merz Waschinski, Gregor • 11 hours • 3 minutes reading time HANDOUT - February 26, 2025, France, Paris: The recording released by the French government shows Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz visiting the Élysée Palace with French President Emmanuel Macron. The German election winner spoke for three hours with President Macron in the Élysée about a new start in relations. In Paris, Merz is seen as a fellow campaigner for a sovereign Europe. Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz sat together for three hours in the Élysée Palace on Wednesday evening. The French President had invited the German election winner to an initial working meeting, largely informal and without a joint statement afterwards. Because the outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still the official contact in Germany. However, the dinner, which was scheduled just three days after the federal election, indicates how serious Macron and Merz are about the Franco-German new start. The future Chancellor declared that he wanted to form a leadership duo with the President: "Together, our countries can achieve great things for Europe." "The agreement was much greater than I had expected," Merz told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung." They were motivated by the desire to make rapid progress together in the face of the geopolitical challenges. After the conversation, CDU circles spoke of an "extraordinarily friendly atmosphere." Merz and Macron agreed to open a new chapter in Franco-German relations. "There was a great deal of agreement on the issues and numerous starting points for joint initiatives." Merz calls for "renewal" of the relationship with Paris Whether nuclear power, armaments projects or trade policy - Berlin and Paris have been on different terms on a number of issues in recent years. At the height of the differences, even the Franco-German government consultations in autumn 2022 had to be postponed. Added to this was the relationship between Scholz and Macron, which was considered to be cool. Merz had repeatedly complained about the state of relations between the two founding countries of the EU. The CDU politician likes to point out his personal relations with France. As a teenager, for example, he was on a student exchange in Auvergne, and he went on holiday to the neighbouring country with his family. He also recalled his time as a member of the EU Parliament, where he learned to appreciate the Franco-German relationship politically. In a keynote speech on foreign policy at the end of January, the CDU and CSU candidate for chancellor promised a "phase of renewal and deepening" if he won the federal election with the Union. "I am determined to use the remaining two years of President Macron's term in office to work with him to realise the vision of a sovereign Europe." These statements were carefully noted in the Élysée Palace. Macron maintained regular contact with Merz, whom he had already received as opposition leader at the end of 2023. However, doubts were always heard in Paris as to how much European sovereignty would actually be possible with the transatlanticist Merz. "Gaullist traits" of the future chancellor Since taking office in 2017, France's president has been demanding that Europeans take their fate more into their own hands, especially in security policy. But he never received a satisfactory answer from Berlin, neither from Scholz nor from his predecessor Angela Merkel (CDU). Meanwhile, the impression prevails in France that US President Donald Trump's solo effort in the Ukraine war and his talks with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin over the heads of the Europeans have led to a change of heart in Merz. The comments made by the likely next chancellor on election night in the television round with the other top candidates were described in the French media as a "revolution". Merz had criticized the Trump administration for being "largely indifferent" to the fate of Europe. Germany was now under massive pressure from two sides. Therefore, his absolute priority was to make Europe independent of the USA. Merz also brought up Europe's own nuclear deterrent capacity. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is close to the CDU, wrote in its analysis of the French view of the federal election that experts in Paris had even accused Merz of having "Gaullist traits" after his comments. And the former top French diplomat and ex-ambassador to Washington, Gérard Araud, even called Merz's statements "a late revenge for General de Gaulle, who in 1963 had to watch the German-French treaty he had just signed being rejected when it was ratified by the Bundestag.