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JOHN LICHFIELD

OPINION: The Franco-German ‘couple’ is crucial to the EU but the relationship is in trouble

As the French and German leaders celebrate 60 years of friendship, John Lichfield looks at a troubled past and an uncertain future for the EU's power couple.

OPINION: The Franco-German 'couple' is crucial to the EU but the relationship is in trouble
France's President Emmanuel Macron (R) shakes hands with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris. Photo by Christophe Ena / POOL / AFP

In 1870, as the Prussian army advanced on Paris, Ernest Renan, the French philosopher, observed sadly: “This misunderstanding can only get worse.”

That was one of the greatest prophetic understatements of history. The relationship between France and Germany was littered for the next 75 years with bullets, barbed-wire and graves.

For sixty years now, the two countries have officially been  friends – or more than friends. They have been diplomatic “besties”. They have been the indispensable “couple” at the heart of the European Union. They have been the “motor” which drove the creation of the EU and its most ambitious policies, from the single currency to borderless freedom of movement.

 Last Sunday President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz and their entire governments met in Paris to commemorate the signing of the Elysée Treaty which officially ended Franco-German enmity on January 22nd 1963.

Macron spoke grandiloquently of the two countries as “two souls in one body”. Scholz said, more prosaically, that France and Germany were a “motor” whose fuel was not “flattery” but a “determination to convert controversy into common action”.

The two governments proceeded to agree on …not very much.

Last weekend’s inter-governmental meeting replaced a summit at Fontainebleau in October which was cancelled at the last moment by Macron after Paris and Berlin failed to end a string of quarrels about energy, anti-inflation subsidies and arms procurement.

A couple of those quarrels have since been patched up. Several remain poisonously unresolved, including a multi-billion-euro German plan to shield its industry from high energy prices. France says that this will damage competition in the European single market.

Paris wants Berlin to agree an EU-wide anti-inflation policy, backed by EU loans. Berlin refuses.

There have been many Franco-German quarrels in the last 60 years. The present crop are, arguably, no worse than those which have gone before.

What has changed is that Germany and France are weaker – Germany economically, France diplomatically.

Germany’s economic model (dependant on Russian gas and Chinese cooperation) has been undermined by the Ukraine war.

The status of the France-Germany as Europe’s “first couple” has been challenged by the perception – right or wrong – that the two countries placed too much confidence in Vladimir Putin before the Ukraine invasion and that they have been too faint in their support for Kyiv since.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine seemed, in one respect, to strengthen Macron’s argument that Europe should be able defend its own “sovereignty”, both militarily and  economically. It has also undermined it.

The importance of the US military commitment to Europe have been re-born. Eastern European and Baltic countries have asserted themselves. They have lost patience with France and Germany.

Franco-German agreements used to be essential to the running of the EU. They are now viewed, from the east, with some suspicion. As a result, a new generation of German diplomats and politicians – some not all – view the Paris-Berlin partnership as limiting or unnecessary.

The crisis has also coincided with the arrival of a new German Chancellor at the head of a quarrelsome Left-Green-centre coalition. Previously, French officials say, nothing could happen unless Angela Merkel agreed. Now, they say, nothing much happens even if Olaf Scholz is broadly on our side.

In a broader sense, the Franco-German post-war friendship has always been fragile.

The treaty signed at the Elysée Palace 60 years ago spoke of a “profound change in the relationship between the two peoples”.  But the “relationship” between the French and German peoples never matched the relationship between governments and political elites.

The old visceral enmity is largely gone but prejudices and generalisations still colour the view across the Rhine in both directions. The French see the Germans as disciplined, predictable, hard-working and humourless. The Germans see the French as charming, witty, superficial, arrogant, lazy and unreliable.

In the 19th century – and up to the middle of this century – the French and Germans fought and hated each other but remained fascinated by the culture of the other. Since the 1960s, the two governments have worked intimately together, but the two peoples have increasingly lost interest in each other.

Two anecdotes.

When my eldest son was 15, we hosted a party for his school friends and their German language exchanges. (The wooden floor in our Paris flat never recovered.)

The kids got on well but they spoke to each other only in English. The teaching of French in Germany and German and France has since all but collapsed.

Secondly, some years ago I caught a direct overnight train from Munich to Paris. By the time it crossed the Rhine, there were almost no German passengers. A new cast of French travellers boarded in Strasbourg. Instead of one train, it was two trains using the same carriages.

Two minor – but maybe not so minor – announcements were made after last weekend’s Franco-German summit. There will be 60,000 free rail tickets for young French and German people to visit one another’s countries this summer. The two governments have applied pressure on their rail companies to start a direct high-speed rail service between Paris and Berlin.

Both are excellent ideas. The glue of a broader, more popular friendship between the countries could be important in the 21st century.

The Franco-German partnership, post-the Ukraine conflict in a 27-country EU and counting, will never again be as powerful and central as it was in circa 1970-2000. It remains crucial all the same. It is difficult to imagine that the EU  can thrive, or even survive, if the “couple” divorces or the “motor” goes into reverse gear.

The misunderstandings will continue. Lets hope they do not get worse.

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POLITICS

Fuel prices to immigration: The key points of Macron’s pledges

French President Emmanuel Macron laid out his some of his priorities for the months to come in an interview on French television on Sunday night.

Fuel prices to immigration: The key points of Macron's pledges

During an interview with French television channel, TF1, on Sunday night, French President Emmanuel Macron weighed in on several ongoing topics in French society, from immigration to fuel prices via cost of living and plans for the ecological transition.

Here are four key takeaways:

Petrol prices and household subsidies 

In order to counter the rise in fuel prices, Macron told TF1 that he has “no miracle solution”, but that the prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, would meet with fuel distributors this week to “call for fuel to be sold at cost price”. 

The president also said he would request that the government include a new scheme to help low-income households who rely on their vehicles to get to work in the upcoming 2024 budget. The Macron government previously offered a similar subsidy for low-earning households, but this one would be paid ‘per vehicle per year’, rather than simply by the household. 

Le Figaro reported that it would likely be restricted to the first five income brackets, meaning individuals with a “reference income of less than €14,700”. This would involve individuals who earn less than €1,314 net per month, couples with one child who take in less than €3,285 net per month, families with three children earning less than €5,255 net per month.

Macron did not offer an exact timeline for when it would come into existence, but as it would be part of the new 2024 budget, the aid would likely not be available until 2024.

 As for other government plans to help motorists with rising fuel costs, the prime minister previously said the government would pass legislation to allow fuel distributors to sell at a loss, which is normally outlawed in France due to protection for small and independent businesses.

However, large distributors such as Carrefour, Leclerc, Intermarché Système U, Casino and Auchan, all refused the government’s plan and said they would not sell fuel at a loss. This includesTotalEnergies, who controls around a third of French fuel stations and had already agreed to cap petrol per litre to €1.99.

In explaining why fuel prices have been rising, Macron said: “We are paying for our dependence. Since the beginning of 2023, the price per barrel of oil has risen around a third and that’s going to continue (…)The increase for this is not tax-related. It has to do with geopolitics.”

Inflation

Macron said his focus is job creation. The French president has previously touted goals of ‘full employment’, which would include some reforms to the existing structures for unemployment benefits and eligibility.

As for wages, Macron said that during an upcoming conference on employment and benefits – set to take place in early October – the government would “work with sectors that still pay below the legal minimum wage.”

As for wage indexation for all fields, the president said he is not in favour as it would “create an inflationary loop.”

Environment and ecological transition

The president also discussed his plans for ‘ecological transition in France’. Macron is set to reveal a thorough ‘ecological plan’ on Monday night at the Elysée Palace. 

On Sunday, he said that the country is “halfway there”. He said that he wants to institute ‘écologie à la française’ (environmentalism in French-style), which he defined as “neither denying the situation nor curing it, but progressing.”

He promised that the government would invest €40 billion in the ecological transition, and stated that one of his major priorities will be to end coal-use and production in France. 

The president said that by 2027, the country’s two remaining coal-fired plants would be converted for ‘biomass’. 

Macron also specified that the government would not ban gas-fired boilers and furnaces, as it had previously indicated, to avoid leaving rural households “without solutions”. Instead, he said the country would seek to encourage the installation of heat pumps. 

The president also mentioned the possibility of offering a specific subsidy for those looking to purchase electric vehicles. He said this could come into force “between now and the end of the year.” 

As for producing electric vehicles and batteries, Macron said that the government planned to create ‘tens of thousands of new industrial jobs’.

READ MORE: Battery makers turn northern French region into ‘electric valley’

Immigration

On the heels of a visit form Pope Francis to Marseille over the weekend – who called for greater solidarity with migrants – Macron addressed the subject of immigration. 

Quoting the former French prime minister, Michel Rocard, Macron said that France “cannot take in all of the world’s misery.”

As for undocumented workers in short-staffed jobs – like the restaurant industry for example – Macron said that there must be ‘intelligent compromise’. He also said: “we must first try to ensure that it is our compatriots (eg. French nationals) who take these jobs (…) there will be no unconditional right to regularisation”. 

France’s parliament will vote on immigration legislation later this autumn.

READ MORE: LATEST: What’s happening with France’s new immigration law?

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