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French President Emmanuel Macron lands in Germany on Sunday for a three-day state visit, followed by a bilateral cabinet meeting, as the European Union's two biggest powers seek to show unity ahead of EU parliamentary elections. next month.
Macron's trip to Germany's capital Berlin as well as Dresden in the east and Muenster in the west is the first French presidential state visit to Germany in 24 years.
The visit will be seen as a health check on German-French relations, which drive EU policy-making, at a time of major challenges for Europe: from the war in Ukraine to the possible election of Donald Trump as US president in November .
Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have very different leadership styles and have clashed publicly on issues from defense to nuclear power since the latter took power in late 2021. However, they have reached compromises on various fronts recently, from fiscal reform to changes in power, market subsidies, allowing the EU to reach agreements and put up a more united front.
"There are tensions in German-French relations, but partly precisely because they have dealt with some difficult topics," said Yann Wernert at the Jacques Delors Institute in Berlin, noting that the two countries had also converged on the need to expand the EU- towards the east..
The visit is "an effort at the highest political level to demonstrate that the relationship is working," said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group think tank. "But there are still fundamental gaps in the key issues looming over the EU."
One such key gap is European defense, especially if Trump wins the November 5 US presidential election. Defense experts see him as a far less reliable ally for Europe than his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden.
Earlier this year, the former Republican president not only said he would not defend NATO members against a future attack by Russia if those countries' contributions to the defense alliance were delayed, but that he would encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell it wants".
France, which has nuclear weapons, has pushed for a more self-reliant Europe in defense matters and has been upset by Germany's decision to buy mostly American equipment for its European Sky Shield air defense umbrella.
Germany says there is no credible alternative to the US military umbrella and that Europe does not have time to wait for a domestic defense industry to prepare for threats such as Russian hostility.
Pomp and business
Macron, accompanied on his trip by his wife Brigitte, will kick off his visit on Sunday by meeting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin before walking through the Brandenburg Gate with the city's mayor, Kai Wegner.
On Monday, he will go to Dresden, where he will give a speech in front of the Frauenkirche, which was destroyed by the Western Allies during World War II, before leaving for Muenster on Tuesday.
But perhaps the most important part of his trip will be a cabinet meeting on Tuesday in Meseberg, just outside Berlin, where the two governments will then get down to business as they seek to find common ground on the two main issues they have been fighting. to see them with the eye- to see, namely protection and competition.
The two countries will also try to find common ground on the EU's agenda for the next five years, given the expected strong showing for the far-right in parliamentary elections on June 6-9, making it more difficult EU decision-making.
The European elections of 2024 take place from June 6 to 9 in the 27 member states of the European Union.
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