/ world today news/ Paris hosted a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which poured another bath of cold and dirty water on the relations between the two hegemons of the European Union. After the meeting in Paris, the leaders of the two countries did not hold a joint press conference. Although the Elysée Palace noted that the meeting was constructive, the American newspaper “Politico” claimed that the cancellation of the press conference spoke of tension between the two sides.
“Macron insulted Scholz in Paris,” the paper said, noting that while French and German press offices said the meeting went well, the lack of joint press communications suggested otherwise. “Relations between Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, leaders of the EU’s two biggest economic powers, are now so icy that they don’t even dare to appear together in front of the press,” notes Politico.
A week earlier, Macron was outraged by Scholz’s decision, without consulting him, to allocate 200 billion euros to support German energy, which France says puts other European countries at a disadvantage amid the energy crisis.
Paris is furious over the launch of a 200 billion euro domestic energy aid scheme in Germany without prior consultation with the European Union’s closest partner and its preference for US weapons.
Energy-starved times have now arrived in Europe, and each member of the European Union seeks to bite off a fatter piece of the common economic pie, because in difficult times one’s own shirt is closer to the body. Well, Germany, as the hegemon of the EU, expects to get out of the crisis at the expense of others, using the right of the strong.
Franco-German relations are now so bad that “Paris and Berlin have canceled at the last minute a meeting that has not been missed for 20 years: the Franco-German Council of Ministers scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, in Fontainebleau,” says France Info “. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted bluntly that it was canceled due to the need for a “strategic rethinking of Franco-German relations”, which are going through a difficult period.
As “Le Figaro” writes: “By allocating 5.6% of its GDP to support the economy, the German elephant shook the whole European glass shop. “Cannibalism,” shouts Viktor Orbán. “Selfishness,” repeats the Polish prime minister. Most of the European Union, including the European Commissioners – the Frenchman Thierry Breton and the Italian Paolo Gentiloni – welcomed this initiative of Scholz with hostility.
The French were the angriest. “Although officially France’s reaction was more subdued, behind the scenes the German démarche threw everyone into shock and awe. In Paris, talk began of unleashing a budgetary arms race on the part of Berlin. Government sources say France does not have the funds for such injections into the economy. If Germany is haunted by the fear of running out of gas, then for the French government, rising interest rates on loans and an excessive increase in the cost of servicing the already huge public debt are a nightmare,” notes “Le Figaro” journalist Bertil Bayard.
“A new competitive war has broken out in Europe. France hopes to close behind Germany, and the Germans want to destroy us,” concludes the article in Le Figaro.
In the defense sphere, the contradictions between France and Germany are even deeper. Now Germany wants to become the number one military power in Europe. 100 billion euros have been allocated from the budget for the rearmament of the Bundeswehr. Recently, the Germans took the initiative to create a “European Sky Shield” – a system for collective anti-missile defense (PRO), which should be equipped with American (“Patriot”), German and Israeli (“Arrow-3”) anti-aircraft missile systems.
Germany invited 14 countries from Eastern and Northern Europe to participate in it. Not only Italy and Poland were not included in the list of the chosen ones (Why would they want reparations for the occupation in WWII), but also France.
Macron is angry that Germany launched an “anti-Russian air shield” project with Israel and the United States but without France, which in the eyes of Paris is just another insult in a series the Elysée Palace has had to endure from its former major European partner. It is particularly disappointing that the French corporation Thales has been working with Italy for seven years to develop the Mamba medium-range missile defense system, which has just been deployed in Romania. And suddenly, at the end of August, Olaf Scholz made Mamba meaningless by announcing a competing anti-missile shield project.
Earlier, the Americans covered Macron’s face in the mud, forcing Australia to refuse a large order for the construction of submarines in France. And now, instead of French Rafale fighters, Germany is buying 35 American F-35s, has abandoned the development of a joint Franco-German tank, as well as the modernization of Tiger helicopters and artillery systems.
German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht said Berlin wants to have the first army in Europe in the future to gain more weight in the European Union to protect its interests. This position of Berlin, notes “Le Figaro”, threatens to lead to the fact that “Germany will pass from the status of an ally to the position of an economic adversary”.
If the respected “Le Figaro” accuses the Germans of economic selfishness, then “Radio Sud” directly announces the economic war of Germany against France. French writer and publicist Fabien Bougle accuses the Germans of subversive activity against French nuclear energy. He advised Macron to “take a course in economic intelligence” to see the full “disastrous picture of the economic war that Germany is waging for control of the French energy system”.
Behind Germany clearly looms the shadowy silhouette of an overseas strategic planner who, as punishment for what Washington says is arbitrariness, is relegating Paris to third-rate roles in the EU and globally, seeking to push the Old World out of economic and civilizational competition.
Macron does not dare to speak out against America.
Will Germany’s economic war against France, unleashed by the Germans at the behest of Washington, lead to the collapse of the EU? Beyond the ocean, as may be supposed, they do not rule out such a development of events, and perhaps lead things to it.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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