For Macron, relations with Germany have been a perennial frustration. While France has called for the EU to chart its own course militarily and industrially with a policy of “strategic autonomy,” Berlin has been skeptical, not wanting to alienate the U.S., which has been the lodestar of its post-war defense strategy.
Despite Macron’s valiant diplomatic efforts — including delivering a eulogy for former finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble predominantly in German last year — Berlin has not succumbed to his charms on key policy issues, ranging from trade to joint debt.
Now all the old certainties are vanishing fast.
In an astonishing U-turn that signals a watershed in relations, Merz is even expressing interest in Germany being protected by France’s nuclear deterrent. It’s one of the many proposals that the French have been pushing for years but traditionally received a frosty reception across the Rhine.
After years of seemingly disagreeing with Germany on everything during Olaf Scholz’s tenure, France is delighting at the prospect of a German leader who, even before taking office, is moving with urgency to clear a path for his country to invest billions of euros in infrastructure and arms.
“Merz and his entourage have the Franco-German reflex,” France’s minister for European affairs, Benjamin Haddad, told POLITICO. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that we will agree on everything, but that there’s a willingness to move forward together.”