Friends and Strangers: The Franco-German Relationship Is Cooling at a Critical Time

Authored by spiegel.de and submitted by mike123456789101112
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Shortly before Christmas, after the Ukrainian president's visit to Washington, there was renewed contact between the U.S. and Berlin. The Americans hinted they might supply Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Sources in Scholz's Chancellery say it was clear to the German government that Berlin would have to follow suit. They say a telephone conversation between U.S. President Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz was arranged for January 5.

But 24 hours before that call, Macron announced France's decision to send tanks without first consulting Berlin. The news portal Politico quoted a French government official on Monday as saying that Macron's goal with his announcement "was to break the taboo (of Western tanks to Ukraine), so that the Germans start moving." The official said there had been a great deal of "complicity" between Zelenskyy and Macron, and that "this was somewhat staged to lift the U.S. and Germany reluctance (on sending tanks)."

For its part, the Chancellery in Berlin has rejected this account. Officials there say considerations about sending Marder infantry fighting vehicles began much earlier. They also say that such a decision cannot be made in just 18 hours. Nevertheless, after Macron's statement, officials in Berlin began frantic attempts to reschedule the call with Biden so that a decision on Germany sending tanks could be included that day on the evening news.

"Of course, it would have been better if we had done it all in a coordinated manner," say sources close to the chancellor. They say officials in Berlin were irked by Macron's unilateral move. Lars Klingbeil, the head of Scholz's party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), told the German newspaper Die Zeit that he didn't know why Macron had rushed ahead. Sources in Berlin described it as just another "pure Macron stunt."

Beyond that, though, not much anger has been expressed in Berlin. Is it because nobody wants to rock the boat before the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty? Or because the Germans are also well aware that they haven't always informed the French government about key decisions?

In the past, the Franco-German friendship has always proven itself in difficult times. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt laid the foundations for the European Economic and Monetary Union in the 1970s. Then, after German reunification, François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl pushed ahead with negotiations for the Maastricht Treaty, which established what is now the European Union. In the summer of 2020, Merkel and Macron, as the driving forces in Brussels, pushed through joint borrowing at the EU level to counter the consequences of the pandemic – an instrument that until then had been considered a taboo by Germans.

But this winter, the crisis is mercilessly exposing the policy differences between Berlin and Paris. There has only been progress on one issue of contention in recent weeks: The project to build a European fighter jet has entered into the next round after tense negotiations. Paris-based aircraft manufacturer Dassault is to lead the consortium it has formed with Airbus, Indra, Eumet and other partners. This had by no means been a foregone conclusion. Dassault resisted for a long time because it was reluctant to share patents and technology with the competition.

Upon closer inspection, though, the progress appears to be a rather modest interim stage. The companies will have to negotiate another contract even to build a first prototype fighter jet. And even the prototype won't be ready to begin until 2029 at the earliest. Also unresolved is the politically sensitive question of under what conditions the consortium will be allowed to export the fighter-bomber to foreign customers, since Germany has a more restrictive line on arms exports than France. The Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which includes the fighter jet, isn't expected to be operational until 2040 at the earliest.

When it comes to energy, too, the two countries are far more divided than they are united. The end of Russian gas supplies has made this particularly clear. France is fundamentally less dependent on gas than Germany because Paris relies more heavily on nuclear power in its energy mix. In addition, the French have a secure main supplier of gas in Norway. The energy crisis has barely hit French consumers in their pocketbooks so far.

Macron's government has largely protected them from price increases on the gas and electricity markets. Anything above a 4-percent increase in electricity prices has been paid by the state in recent months. This also explains why overall inflation in France is much lower than in most other European countries. It currently stands at just 6 percent.

When Scholz announced Germany's 200-billion-euro package to cushion the energy crisis at the end of September, he not only triggered fears in the rest of Europe that Germany would gain a competitive advantage within the EU. He also caused considerable irritation in Paris with the step. Germany's French partners hadn't been informed in advance. Sources in Paris like to note today that Scholz's chief of staff, Chancellery head Wolfgang Schmidt, had spent hours at Élysée Palace a few days before talking about "everything under the sun." He just didn't say anything about the planned bailout.

Sweedn on January 25th, 2023 at 12:53 UTC »

Germany almost always « betrayed » France for it’s own interests (military, energy, economical).

France has always naively believed in a Europe of sharing.

SXTR on January 25th, 2023 at 09:51 UTC »

It will get warmer. We really shouldn’t be worry about that.

mike123456789101112 on January 25th, 2023 at 03:22 UTC »

Submission statement: Article highlighting recent strains in the relationship between Germany and France in light of the recent 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty. Specifically, the article talks about different approaches towards arms deliveries to Ukraine and France’s decision to send light tanks without alerting Germany. Energy policy and other defense initiatives are also discussed, highlighting Germany’s larger reliance on natural gas compared to France.