BERLIN (AP) — President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday began the first official visit to Germany by a French head of state in 24 years, a three-day trip aimed at underscoring strong ties between the European Union’s traditional leading powers.
The visit was originally scheduled to take place last July but was postponed at the last minute due to riots in France following the police killing of a 17-year-old boy.
Macron visits Germany frequently as Paris and Berlin seek to align their foreign policy positions with the EU, but this will be the country’s first major state visit since Jacques Chirac in 2000. Macron and his wife Brigitte are being hosted by Germany’s ceremonial president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Steinmeier said Macron’s visit to Germany ahead of Germany celebrating the 75th anniversary of its post-World War II constitution and the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November was “testament to the depth of the friendship between France and Germany.”
Chancellor Steinmeier will host a state dinner for Macron at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace on Sunday evening. The two presidents will then fly to the eastern city of Dresden on Monday, where Macron will give a speech, before traveling to Münster in western Germany on Tuesday. After the state visit, Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and ministers from both countries are due to meet later on Tuesday at the government guesthouse outside Berlin.
French President Emmanuel Macron (L), his wife Brigitte Macron (2nd from right), German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2nd from left) and his wife Elke Büdenbender (R) react during a welcoming ceremony at the Bellevue presidential palace in Berlin, Germany, on May 26, 2024. The French president is on a three-day state visit to Germany that ends on May 28. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP) (RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP via Getty Images)
Germany and France, the EU’s largest economies, have long been seen as driving forces behind European integration, but the two neighbours have often differed in their policies and priorities on a range of issues.
That became evident earlier this year with differing positions on whether Western countries should rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine, with both countries strongly backing Kiev.
Macron said on Sunday that Franco-German relations have been much debated over the past few decades, but that “France and Germany have achieved great things together. We have been at the heart of Europe,” and contrasted that with the two countries’ history of war until 1945.
As Russia’s war with Ukraine escalates, he reiterated his warning that Europe could “die” if it fails to build a strong defence of its own or undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the US.
World War III Watch: Macron reiterates possibility of sending troops to Ukraine https://t.co/9nDoD1jDon
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 4, 2024
