Who and what comes after Merkel? French President Macron is also interested in this. That is why he is receiving two candidates for chancellor in quick succession this week. Only one is missing.
In the middle of the hot election campaign phase, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz was received by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
After the hour-long conversation in the Elysée Palace, the Federal Minister of Finance spoke out in favor of strengthening Europe in the international order. “Together with France, we must ensure that Europe continues on this path to sovereignty in the future,” said Scholz. Germany and France have always played an important role in this.
Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) will also be a guest at the Elysée this Wednesday. Green candidate Annalena Baerbock, on the other hand, will not visit Macron before the election. She would rather use as much time as possible for exchanging ideas with people in Germany, it is said from her environment. “The Elysée Palace is also not a place for an election campaign.”
MACRON SIGNALED READINESS TO CALL TO ALL THREE
Meetings of heads of state and government with top candidates before elections in friendly countries always have a certain explosiveness, because they can be perceived as an election campaign aid. Macron has therefore signaled to all three candidates for chancellor that he is ready to talk to them. The French embassy in Berlin informed the German press agency that this was communicated to the teams from Scholz, Laschet and Baerbock on request. Baerbock has not requested such a meeting up to now.
The Green candidate has not made a single trip abroad since she was nominated in April. As Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister, Scholz was with a large crowd in Washington and at a G20 meeting in Venice. Laschet was in Poland in August on the anniversary of the Warsaw uprising against the German occupiers in 1944.
HABECK PROVIDED FOR FURORS WITH UKRAINE-REISE
For the two of them, travel is easier to justify because they have to take care of international relations in their government offices. But it would also be possible for Baerbock. Your co-top candidate Robert Habeck, who is no longer a member of any government, has shown it. In May he was in Ukraine at the invitation of President Volodymyr Selenskyj and visited the front line in the east of the country. Not only the pictures of him with a steel helmet and protective vest caused a sensation. His demand for arms deliveries to Ukraine was also a topic of conversation for days during the election campaign.
Baerbock, on the other hand, limited himself to cultivating her international contacts domestically and met, for example, the US climate officer John Kerry when he was visiting Berlin. Macron already got to know Baerbock in February 2020 during a lengthy conversation with Habeck. “Ms. Baerbock appreciates the very good exchange with the French government and the French president”, it is now said from the party headquarters. “She is looking forward to deepening it after the general election.”
SCHOLZ MAKES MACRON WAIT
So Baerbock leaves the international stage to its competitors. But Scholz made Macron wait for now. He arrived at the Elysée Palace 30 minutes late, but then spoke to Macron for an hour as planned. He then promoted Franco-German cooperation on the roof terrace of the German embassy with the Eiffel Tower in the background. This was also central to the European response to the Corona crisis, he said with a view to the EU development fund. This is also the “starting point” for what is needed for the future.
Scholz said that the international climate club he proposed was also discussed. Countries willing to protect the climate should take the lead together and also avoid location disadvantages. “We are jointly pursuing a way of how we can do it.”
Scholz had met Macron several times in his political career. Among other things, during his time as Mayor of Hamburg he also held the office of the Federal Republic of Germany’s representative for cultural affairs within the framework of the treaty on Franco-German cooperation. Laschet currently holds this position.
MACRON WAS RECEIVED BY MERKEL IN THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Incidentally, Macron was also traveling abroad in his own 2017 presidential election campaign – and was received by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in Berlin. There was no joint public appearance by the two at the time – as is now the case with Scholz’s visit to the Elysée Palace. The then Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel insisted on standing in front of the cameras with Macron – and taking a clear position: «According to what I observe, you are the only presidential candidate in France who has a clear and unmistakable course for Europe drives », said the SPD politician at the time.
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