FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
In these times of war in Ukraine and other "lethal" threats, it is vital that the EU's two main powers come together...
If we were to write a treatise on gastronomic diplomacy, it would include famous meals, including those of François Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher at La Mère Poulard on Mont-Saint-Michel in 1988; Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder at Chez Yvonne in Strasbourg in 2014 for a meeting; or Emmanuel Macron trying to seduce Donald Trump in the restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in 2017.
On the evening of May 3, the Macron couple hosted the Scholz couple at a high-end Parisian restaurant - a "private dinner", the Élysée presidential palace said, declining to give further details.
It was anything but simple leisure. If they were short on topics of conversation, the French president and the German chancellor might have talked about Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Paris; Olaf Scholz was in Beijing last month and coordination of positions against the Chinese giant is a must. The Elysée wants to invite Scholz to attend the meeting with Xi next week, as Angela Merkel did in 2019 in Paris.
If they still lacked topics of conversation, Macron and Scholz might have discussed the cover of this week's edition of the British magazine 'The Economist', which features the French president under the headline "Europe in mortal danger".
In an interview, Macron clarifies his statement that Europe can die, a little phrase he said in a recent speech at the Sorbonne. And he once again leaves the door open for sending ground troops to Ukraine.
When he first hinted at the possibility last February, Macron drew a backlash from Scholz. Now, the French president is insisting.
The Franco-German relationship is such that it depends in part on the alchemy between the two main leaders - De Gaulle-Adenauer, Mitterrand-Kohl, Chirac-Schroeder, etc. - but that's not all. The scope of common interests is considerable, and above all, both countries are aware of their special responsibility within the European Union.
In these times of war in Ukraine and other "lethal" threats, such as the risk of technological stagnation, or the China-US Cold War, it is vital that the EU's two main powers come together. Even when they disagree, as they have for months.
European leadership cannot be secured by a single country, however powerful, nor by a single leader, however ambitious. Neither France nor Germany can run the 27 European countries on their own; Poland is now the best candidate to join this historic leadership and different coalitions are being formed depending on the topic. It's a complex process, but what better way to bridge differences than through gastronomic diplomacy? / Adapted "Pamphlet" from "World Crunch"
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