On his first full day as German chancellor, Friedrich Merz flew to Paris and Warsaw, stepping up efforts to bring peace to Europe exactly 80 years after the end of the second World War.
As his officials set to work in Berlin – in particular doubling down on border checks and immigration rules – the Merz mantra with French president Emmanuel Macron and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk was that Berlin was back in business and interested in a new “push for Europe”.
A beaming Macron echoed that wish, promising “new momentum” after a hearty welcome on the Élysée Palace steps for Germany’s new Francophile – and francophone – leader.
After a cool – critics would say frosty – cohabitation between the French president and former chancellor Olaf Scholz, Macron and Merz demonstrated a closer temperamental and rhetorical match at a post-talks press conference.
[ The Irish Times view on Friedrich Merz: a change in BerlinOpens in new window ]
Merz said his early years as an MEP in Strasbourg had left a “French impression” on him and he followed his French host without any translation headset. He praised the “gift of forgiveness and reconciliation” in Franco-German relations and said “now is the right time to intensify them”.
Macron called the meeting an “important moment for our Continent” offering a chance to step up co-operation to boost European security and competitiveness.
A priority, he said, was to “double” military budgets through common EU projects, a stronger “European Nato pillar” and bilateral programmes involving “tanks, fighter planes and far-reaching missiles to create a common framework for security and operations”.
[ Profile: Friedrich Merz known for impulsive shifts and rhetorical sharpshootingOpens in new window ]
Asked if this meant Germany was ready to follow France and supply Ukraine with cruise missiles, the previously loquacious Macron recommended adhering to an “ambiguity that protects Ukraine”.
“We will cover Ukraine’s needs,” said Macron, “but talk as little as possible about it”.
The chancellor promised to visit Ukraine soon but refused to be drawn on cruise missiles for Kyiv, despite his conditional support for this in opposition.
He sidestepped accepting a French offer to extend its nuclear shield across Europe, but acknowledged a “fundamental need for us to discuss with France and also with the UK how we can continue to provide such a deterrent response together in the future”.
For now Merz, a firm Atlanticist, reiterated his belief in the US-led status quo on nuclear deterrence in Europe – and made US support and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine a condition of German peacekeeping participation there.
For all the talk of co-operation, agreement and new beginnings, it was business as usual for Paris and Berlin in other areas.
When Merz reiterated German support for the trade pact with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries, Macron said French support depended on protection for European traders mirroring the EU trade deal with Canada.
On budgetary discipline Merz, a liberal-conservative, said he backed plans to exclude defence spending from EU fiscal rules but that the rule book remained necessary in general to “create finance policy stability” and secure investor support.
With France running a deficit of six per cent – well above the euro area’s three per cent ceiling – Macron said Europe needed greater EU-level investment and fiscal flexibility to “repurpose our basic convictions ... and ask what is good for European prosperity”.
Both leaders showed the greatest unity in nuanced but clear criticism of Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Macron warned that Israel’s “fight against terrorists is one thing but [it] also has to adhere to humanitarian rules”.
Merz, traditionally a staunch supporter of Israel, said Germany support its “justified interest in driving back terrorism and Hamas” with “no ifs or buts”. Then came the but: “But they have a humanitarian obligation to the civilian population in Gaza.”
The brisk energy of the Paris meeting contrasted with a cooler reception in Warsaw. While Merz was in the air, his new interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, announced plans to tighten up still further German controls on all its borders and rescind a federal order allowing people without valid documents enter Germany to file for asylum.
Germany introduced controls on all borders last September and insists they are temporary measures.
Donald Tusk said his country would “not accept” groups of illegal migrants being sent on to its territory and that it was in German and Polish interests to “maintain” the free travel Schengen area.
“The worst thing that could happen would be if all EU countries started introducing controls on their borders,” said Tusk, 10 days before a key presidential election.
Friedrich Merz said any changes would happen “in a manageable way” for Germany’s neighbours and within the parameters of EU law.
