Thursday, November 4th, 2021
“Vive Mutti”
The French celebrate Merkel by saying goodbye
Angela Merkel works with four French presidents during her term of office. Now she is saying goodbye to the neighboring country and head of state Emmanuel Macron, with whom the Chancellor initially had a difficult relationship.
“Vive Mutti” (Long live Mutti) shouted many onlookers who waited behind the barriers during the Chancellor’s farewell visit to Beaune in Burgundy. In disregard of the official program, the host, President Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel dragged their bath in the crowd with relish. Macron, who has long been in campaign mode, shook hands eagerly. Merkel limited herself with a friendly smile to numerous fist-to-fist contacts with the audience. A little behind came the two spouses, Joachim Sauer and Brigitte Macron.
For Merkel, Macron is the fourth French president with whom she has dealt during her term in office. “The nice thing, regardless of which president I worked with, was always that we come from the same set of values, but our first thoughts usually had different thoughts,” said the Chancellor, looking back. For Macron, Merkel was initially a big brake on the brakes – and in the end she was the determined stateswoman who, together with him, paved the way for the 750 billion corona reconstruction package. “You have held Europe together all these years,” said the president.
It should be a very personal farewell evening. The Elysée Palace had chosen the wine town of Beaune in Burgundy, a place that stands for the French way of life. The crowd that received the two was cheerful. A single protester was taken away by security guards.
First visit to Jacques Chirac
In the former Beaune hospital, founded in the 15th century, with its colorful roof tiles, Merkel and Macron took a look at the “Hall of the Poor”, where the sick were previously cared for – a fitting picture at the end of their collaboration, which was even closer during the pandemic had become than before. In the evening, the French President presented Merkel with the Great Cross of the Legion of Honor, with which her predecessors had also been honored.
In the Château du Clos de Vougeot, in the middle of the vineyards, the two couples had dinner together, traditionally hearty dishes from the region: eggs in red wine sauce and beef in red wine sauce, prepared by a star chef. In addition, of course, local wines from the best locations and vintages.
On her farewell visit, Merkel may have remembered her inaugural visit after her election. At that time, Jacques Chirac greeted her with a kiss on the hand that was clearly unfamiliar to her. She could also have thought back to Nicolas Sarkozy, who reminded her of the fidgety actor Louis de Funès, or of the dignified François Hollande, whom she worked closely with after the Paris attacks in 2015.
“Learned from each other”
In 2017 Merkel got a political partner who was not even 40 years old and highly motivated. Macron had to curb his impatience when he ignited a firework of proposals for EU reform in his Sorbonne speech in 2017 – and initially no answer came from Berlin because the coalition negotiations at the time were dragging on.
Merkel and Macron later found a good relationship. In Meseberg in 2018 they laid the foundation for a budget for the euro zone, and in the Treaty of Aachen they created a binational parliamentary assembly. When Macron announced the “brain death of NATO” two years ago, it is said to have burst its collar. “We got involved with each other and learned from each other,” said Merkel as she parted and thanked Macron for the time together.
From the French point of view, the reconstruction package was certainly one of the highlights of Franco-German cooperation during Macron’s tenure. Before that, France had long campaigned in vain to jointly take on debt in the EU. In Paris, people are already looking forward to Merkel’s likely successor, Olaf Scholz, who met Macron in the Elysée Palace in September.