CDU leader on France policy
Merz accuses Scholz of “miserable” behavior
March 8, 2024, 10:35 p.m
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German-French relations are currently badly affected. This was particularly noticeable at the Ukraine conference last week. CDU leader Merz therefore criticizes Chancellor Scholz and reminds us of his predecessor.
Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of pitiful behavior with regard to his foreign and French policy. The relationship between Germany and France is “as good as destroyed,” criticized the CDU leader at a regional conference on his party’s new basic program that evening in Stuttgart.
Merz was referring to the Ukraine conference in Paris last week. Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron sat opposite each other for two hours without saying a word with their arms crossed, and later Scholz explained at an “unfortunate press conference” why he did not want to deliver the Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Merz then recalled the France policy of former chancellors: “Imagine for a brief moment in your mind’s eye – Konrad Adenauer in Paris, Helmut Kohl in Paris, Angela Merkel in Paris, even Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, and you name them too Gerhard Schröder – none of them would have behaved as pitifully as the German Chancellor did last week.”
France’s foreign minister: “No drama”
Merz also spoke out in favor of supporting Ukraine and defending Germany and Europe. Russia must lose the war, Ukraine must win. Recently there have been repeated disagreements between Germany and France. At the conference, Macron did not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine. Scholz later contradicted this.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné recently stated that, despite differences between Scholz and Macron, he saw no division between Berlin and Paris. “There is no Franco-German conflict, we agree on 80 percent of the issues,” he told the newspaper Le Monde last weekend after the conference. Séjourné continued that he spoke to his German colleague Annalena Baerbock. “There is a willingness to talk to each other.” Germany and France have “the same goal of supporting Ukraine,” said the French Foreign Minister. There is “no drama” here.