This is Gabriel Attal’s first trip abroad. Busy these last few weeks by the anger of the farmers, the first crisis he had to manage, the young Prime Minister booked his inaugural overseas visit to Berlin. Its objective: “to nourish and strengthen the Franco-German relationship”.
After a speech to the French community at the French Embassy, Gabriel Attal, whose motion of censure targeting him was rejected this Monday, February 5 by the National Assembly, will be received with military honors at 6 p.m. at the German Chancellery , where he will have a one-on-one interview with Olaf Scholz. This meeting will cover all “bilateral, European and international” subjects as well as economic policy questions, the Chancellor’s spokesperson said last Friday.
Carbon-free hydrogen, enlargement of the European Union, agricultural crisis, rise of the far right and European elections will feature in particular on the agenda of the meeting, according to the French side. The two officials will then hold a joint press conference, then have dinner with their delegations at the chancellery. Gabriel Attal should make this trip without a minister but with four parliamentarians, including the leader of the Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard and the LR senator, Jean-François Rapin.
“Continue and strengthen” cooperation
At the beginning of January, Olaf Scholz congratulated Gabriel Attal on his appointment, looking forward to “continuing and strengthening” cooperation between the two countries, which had recently been undermined, particularly on the thorny issue of energy. Gabriel Attal replied that “an ever more united France and Germany is a Europe that is ever stronger and moving forward.” Emmanuel Macron recently praised the commitment to Franco-German friendship of former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, during a national tribute to the Bundestag.
But he cultivated an understanding of reason with the chancellor. And, at the end of a seminar between the two governments in October in Hamburg, the two officials conceded that the Franco-German couple was not in the best shape, while displaying their determination to put it back on track. rails, including on the issue of energy and the electricity market, on which the energy bill of households and businesses in Europe depends.
The war in Ukraine has exposed several fundamental differences over the historic alliance of the two countries, the driving force behind European construction, from energy to industrial cooperation programs on combat aircraft and the tank of the future. “We want to move forward together,” assured the Chancellor while Paris and Berlin engaged in an interminable skirmish in Brussels on the nuclear square, banned by Germany but central for France.
Former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne also went to Berlin in November 2022 shortly after her appointment, and sealed an energy agreement with Olaf Scholz supposed to “guarantee” their reciprocal supply.
Mercosur
On military aid to Ukraine, Olaf Scholz pleads for its increase, targeting without mentioning France, the EU’s leading military power. New promises of Western aid to kyiv have slowed down sharply, against a backdrop of political dissension. They have even fallen to their lowest level since the start of the Russian invasion, the German research institute Kiel Institute calculated in early December. France has been accused of not doing enough, notably by not delivering combat planes.
The amount of French military support for Ukraine amounts to 3.2 billion euros, according to a parliamentary report published in November. The Kiel Institute has established a ranking, contested by Paris, which counts French aid at 540 million euros so far, far behind Germany (17.1 billion), the United Kingdom (6.6 billion ) and Poland (3 billion).
Gabriel Attal and Olaf Scholz will also discuss the agricultural crisis, which affects their two countries, even if in France the unions have called for the lifting of the blockades after a series of government concessions. Despite the farmers’ revolt, Germany remains favorable to the controversial trade agreement project between the European Union and the Latin American countries of Mercosur, which France opposes.