Macron expected in Germany for a three-day trip

French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day state visit to Germany on Sunday to reaffirm the strength of the bilateral relationship and try to overcome disputes.

Speech on Europe, visit to the Holocaust Memorial, Peace Prize and protocol pomp… less than two weeks before the European elections, the visit will be imbued with symbols of unity and of friendship between the two leading powers of the EU.

“We don't celebrate often enough what we have achieved together” since the Franco-German reconciliation in 1963, we observe at the German presidency.

“We can talk a lot about the vicissitudes of the Franco-German, but there is also a permanence, a depth of relations between the two peoples and that is what this state visit shows,” adds the Elysée. 60~/p>

This is the first state visit – the highest in the protocol rank – of a French president to the big neighbor across the Rhine since that by Jacques Chirac in 2000.

Initially planned for last July, it was postponed due to urban riots in France. Ironically, Emmanuel Macron returns from an express trip to New Caledonia, a French territory plagued by violent riots for ten days in the heart of the Pacific.

Berlin, Dresden (east) then Münster (west): the head of state will meet Germany in its diversity, particularly the former GDR where the last major visit by a French president dates back to 1989 , just after the fall of the Wall, with François Mitterrand.

Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by his wife Brigitte, is expected at 12:00 GMT (2:00 p.m. local) in Berlin where he will be welcomed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

– “Disruptive” –

It is first expected On Democracy Day, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, a special respect for a foreign head of state, underline the two capitals.

The two leaders will then have a meeting, followed by a press conference and a state dinner at Bellevue Castle, the residence of the German president.

Throughout the ceremonies, potential crowd baths and speeches, the two will not leave each other's side for three days.

The reunion with Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not take place until Tuesday, although he is expected to make an appearance at the state dinner, as will former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Protocol obliges, the German president, an essentially honorary function, is the inviting power for state visits.

But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a broken social democrat in the exercise of power, was also Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor in Angela Merkel's government.

From the war in Ukraine to the Franco-French relationship -German, the exchanges with the French president therefore promise to be very political.

“He really appreciates Emmanuel Macron for his side of moving the lines, a little +disruptive+ “, notes Hélène Miard-Delacroix, specialist in German history at the Sorbonne.

– “Paradigme” –

Enough to perhaps put oil in the wheels before the Franco-German council of ministers on Tuesday and the meeting with Olaf Scholz in a context still fraught with dissension and misunderstandings.

Emmanuel Macron will provide after-sales service for his speech at the Sorbonne on April 25, in which he warned against the “death” of Europe and called the Twenty-Seven to a new start.

“I call for a new economic paradigm, a new growth model, and that is what I will try to convince the Germans”, said he said Wednesday in the weekly L'Express.

If the president and the chancellor agree on the need to boost competitiveness in Europe in the face of competition from China and the United States, they remain in disagreement on the place of nuclear power, budgetary strategy, trade agreements or the degree of protectionism.

The potential sending of soldiers to Ukraine mentioned by Emmanuel Macron also arouses the greatest reservation in Germany, deeply pacifist since the end of the Second World War.

The production of weapons in common on Ukrainian soil is, however, more relevant than ever.

“The Franco-German relationship means expressing disagreements and trying to find ways compromise”, notes Hélène Miard-Delacroix.

But for Olaf Scholz, with a very Nordic reserve, and Emmanuel Macron, quick to shake up the obvious, the path is announcement longer than usual.

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