state visit
Macron wants to strengthen the German-French friendship
A round of table football: French President Emmanuel Macron together with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Democracy Festival in Berlin. Photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
French presidents often visit Berlin for working visits. The last state visit with all the trimmings was almost a quarter of a century ago. Now it’s worked out on the second attempt.
With the first state visit by a French president in 24 years, Emmanuel Macron wants to bring new momentum to Franco-German relations. After arriving in Berlin with his wife Brigitte, he stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries for Europe. “Europe can die,” he said, as he did a few weeks ago in his much-noticed speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris. “Franco-German relations are essential and important for Europe.”
Macron also contradicted the impression that Europe’s Franco-German engine had stalled. “That’s not true. We are moving forward,” the president said, according to an official translation.
Steinmeier: “Celebrate democracy together”
Macron and his host, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, first visited the Democracy Festival in the government district to celebrate 75 years of the Basic Law. “We want to make this visit a real celebration,” said Steinmeier there. “We want to promote democracy together.”
Tomorrow, Macron will give a speech on Europe in front of the Frauenkirche in Dresden and on Tuesday he will be awarded the International Prize of the Peace of Westphalia in Münster – before he meets with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and several members of both governments at Meseberg Castle near Berlin. The discussion will focus on European defense and competition policy.
It didn’t work at first attempt
French presidents come to Berlin quite often for political talks. The last formal state visit was made by President Jacques Chirac in 2000. Unlike a working visit, a state visit always lasts several days and follows a set protocol, which includes, for example, a state banquet and a visit to at least one place outside the capital. This time, Macron will be visiting Saxony, one of the five eastern German states in addition to Berlin, for the first time as president.
In May last year, Macron postponed the state visit due to unrest in France. Now it will take place in a slightly shortened form.
Call for participation in European elections
From the host Steinmeier’s point of view, the visit is intended to highlight and celebrate the uniqueness of the German-French friendship. This is why Steinmeier invited Macron as the only foreign guest to the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law, according to the Federal President’s Office.
He and Macron also want to use the visit to encourage people in Germany to vote in the European elections in two weeks. Macron already called for this at the Democracy Festival in Berlin.
This is not least due to the concern that, as experience shows, low voter turnout plays into the hands of right-wing parties. In the 2019 European elections, turnout in Germany was 61.4 percent.
Differences on important issues
As good as the two heads of state get along with each other, relations between Berlin and Paris are currently difficult at government level. There is always friction between the two capitals on key issues. This applies to support for Ukraine as well as to the economic policy orientation towards competitors the USA and China. These questions are to be discussed after the state visit at a German-French ministerial council on Tuesday afternoon in Meseberg Castle, the guest house of the federal government, north of Berlin.
Macron preaches greater European autonomy with its own defense strategy and protection of the economy from unfair competition from China and the USA. Chancellor Scholz, on the other hand, is sticking to his transatlantic orientation and the important trading partner China. And in the Ukraine conflict, Macron surprised Scholz with his thoughts on sending ground troops, something Scholz categorically rejects.
Scholz also rejects the delivery of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to the country attacked by Russia. France, on the other hand, has been providing its Scalp missiles for some time. In return, Berlin accuses Paris, as the EU’s second-largest economy, of doing far too little for Ukraine.
Missing answers from Berlin
CDU chairman Friedrich Merz criticised the fact that relations between the two countries are worse than they have been for decades. Immediately before Macron’s visit, he demanded a clear signal from the German government on European policy. Merz criticised the fact that Macron had not received a response from Germany to his two major speeches on Europe at the Sorbonne. “That was rightly met with great irritation in Paris, across all parties,” Merz told the broadcaster rbb24 Inforadio. The first speech was still in Angela Merkel’s (CDU) government.
In his second speech last April, Macron warned that there was a great risk that Europe would be “weakened or even downgraded” in the next decade. He called for a European defense strategy with a common arms industry and an accelerated rearmament process financed by EU funds in order to be able to cope with the threat from Russia. Scholz commented on the speech on Platform X by saying that the common goal of France and Germany was “that Europe remains strong.” He added to Macron: “Your speech contains good ideas on how we can achieve this.”