BERLIN: Emmanuel Macron on Sunday arrived in Berlin on the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter century, seeking to ease recent tensions and warn of the dangers of the far right ahead of European Union elections.
Macron's plane landed at a Berlin airport at the start of his three-day, four-stop visit that will seek to emphasise the historic importance of the post-war relationship between the two key EU states. All has not been smooth in a relationship often seen as the engine of the EU, with Berlin taken aback by Macron's refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and German officials said to be uneasy at times about his often-theatrical style of foreign policy.
In a question-and-answer session on social media with young people this month, Macron enlisted help from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when asked if the Franco-German "couple" was still working. "Hello dear friends, long live French-German friendship!" Scholz said in French in a video on Macron's X feed. "Thank you Olaf! I very much agree with you," Macron replied in heavily accented German.
On Sunday afternoon Macron was set to hold talks with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial.
On Monday afternoon he will travel to Dresden in the former East Germany to deliver a speech on Europe at a European festival. Tuesday sees Macron in the western German city of Munster and later in Meseberg, outside Berlin, for talks with Scholz and a Franco-German joint cabinet meeting.
The trip comes two weeks ahead of European elections where polls show, in a major potential embarrassment for Macron, his coalition is trailing well behind the far right and may struggle to even reach third place.
In a keynote address on foreign policy last month, Macron issued a dire warning about the threats to Europe in a changing world in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die," Macron said. "It can die and this depends only on our choices."
Officials from both sides are at pains to emphasise that while there are periodic tensions on specific issues, the fundamental basis of the relationship remains sound. — AFP
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