At joint appearances, Macron and Scholz like to ritually reaffirm their nations’ close relations, but so far there has not been much evidence of personal closeness. Politically, too, there is a certain friction at the moment, especially on how to deal with the war in Ukraine. It took a long time for Macron and Scholz to travel together to Kyiv. Scholz has shown himself more hesitant than Macron in delivering arms to Ukraine. On the issue of a gas price cap, Macron even publicly warned that Germany was “isolating itself” in Europe — an affront to Berlin. The two sides are also making very slow progress on joint armaments projects, for example on the development of a fighter aircraft.
That’s a very popular political mantra here. You normally hear it right before Germany goes it alone again.
France and Germany’s relationship questioned as Scholz goes alone on policy – Germany has been criticized for approving a 200 billion euro ($200.2 billion) rescue package.
Fresh tensions between France and Germany are challenging their relationship at a time when their unity is critical for broader European policy in tackling the energy crisis.
The leaders of the two nations will meet in Paris on Wednesday, but this encounter almost got canceled.
(just like the Czech Republic). We’ll supply you with gas now too.
France starts sending natural gas directly to Germany – Technical adjustments were necessary as the single pipeline between the two countries was originally intended only to deliver gas (from Russia) from Germany to France.
If you haven’t noticed, Germany’s Green doesn’t stink.
Fun fact for you CO2 fans out there: The Germans generate 10 tons of CO2 per capita per year (some call it the “Carbon Footprint”), the nuclear-friendly French only do 6.
Thank goodness. They remain determined to not only keep using nuclear energy, but to ramp up their program.
The French, for their part, haven’t been able to make clear to the Germans a startling discovery they made a few years ago: Nuclear power is reliable because it produces day and night. The German renewables, well, aren’t, don’t and never will.
France ramps up nuclear power as Germany closes plants in the name of clean energy.
Chancellor Angela Merkel soon caved to public pressure and announced Germany would phase out all nuclear power within 10 years. Her government kept that promise. Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, wants to speed up the phase-out of coal and eventually natural gas. He promises that by the end of this decade, 80% of Germany’s energy will be from renewables. And he doesn’t include nuclear in that category.
In their Green German Dream World. The Germans proudly demonstrate to the rest of the world how to turn off their nuclear power plants (and their “dirty” power plants too) while simultaneously importing nuclear energy from France and dirty natural gas from Russia to make up the difference.
Germany shuts down half of its 6 remaining nuclear plants – Germany on Friday shut down half of the six nuclear plants it still has in operation, a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power.
And they’re not very good at it either. The Germans, this time along with the French, are doing their “friends don’t spy on friends” routine again.
France and Germany are “seeking full clarity” on a report claiming that one of Denmark’s intelligence agencies helped the United States spy on several senior European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
Just so you know who you’re dealing with, here are just a handful of the German cases of friends spying on friends I’ve collected over the years:
That would be so beautiful man but something tells me Angie Merkel might just dig in her big heels on this one. If you didn’t already know: Nobody in Europe wants this thing, folks. Nobody except Germany and Russia, so I guess it’s going to happen.
France presses Germany to ditch Nord Stream 2 over Navalny France has urged Germany to scrap a major gas pipeline project — Nord Stream 2 — with Russia. EU members are considering sanctions over the detention of Alexei Navalny and a crackdown against his supporters.
“It’s a decision for Germany, because the pipeline is in Germany.”
German defense contractor Rheinmetall on Wednesday announced the sale of MK-82-EP general purpose aircraft-dropped bombs to France and Germany.
The order, for about 2,000 bombs, totals $42.3 million, Rheinmetall said in a statement.
The 500-pound bomb bodies will be used by France’s Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighter planes, the Direction General de l’Armament said, and as the warhead of the GBU-54 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition system for Germany’s Tornado and Eurofighter platforms.
Frugality? Refusing to pay other countries’ debts? That was “old Germany.”
Now the Germans need a country like Austria to take care of the problem for them – just like the Austrians took care of Merkel’s migrant madness by closing their borders way back when.
‘Frugal four’ nations counter Franco-German EU initiative – Four EU countries have teamed up, rejecting Macron and Merkel’s persistent lobbying for a €500 billion rescue fund. Instead, they have their own scheme on how to save Europe from economic fallout amid the pandemic…
The four countries also indicated that they will neither agree to a mutualization of debt nor an increase in the EU budget. Their draft proposal was seen by the German Press Agency (DPA) on Saturday.
“Our objective is to provide temporary, dedicated funding through the EU budgetû and to offer favorable loans to those who have been most severely affected by the crisis.”
That means reconstruction bonds. Or Eurobonds/Coronabonds light. Or Germany breaking a taboo and knuckling under to France to share debt with other EU countries, if you prefer.
It’s hard to keep up with them. Politicians just can’t burn money fast enough these days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel broke with her country’s longstanding opposition to raising money together with other – often poorer – EU countries. But the proposal made with French President Emmanuel Macron is limited in scale and duration, which could help her sell it to skeptics back home.
It consists of 500 billion euros ($550 billion) in loans and grants to help countries through the recession, and is viewed by some as a step toward stronger EU ties as the 27-country union faces challenges not just from the virus crisis, but from populist forces in member countries Hungary and Poland who want to loosen the bloc’s ties.
Observing Hermann 