After months of planning, this week it finally seemed so far. French President Emmanuel Macron was to receive the German Greens leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck for the first political tête-à-tête this Wednesday afternoon at the Paris Élysée Palace. The SPIEGEL had learned from several sources and reported on Tuesday afternoon.
But now the conversation has been postponed. The reason: timing problems of the president, it says from the environment Macron. One will meet at another opportunity. Moved, not canceled.
Apparently, as a result of the funeral service for the late, former French President Jacques Chirac on Monday in Paris, the dates of Macrons have moved accordingly.
Patrick Pleul / DPA
Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck: Search for new alliances
Green boss Habeck is on a European tour this week: Brussels, Paris, Rome. Because of the originally planned Macron appointment Co-boss Baerbock wanted to travel without further ado to Paris. The Roman mayor Virginia Raggi is allowed to meet Habeck again alone.
Since governing has become a fragile thing even in Germany, you look around. Looking for new alliances, potential partners, not only in Brandenburg or Berlin, but also a level above, the European.
The approach to Macron took a while. On the one hand, this may have been due to the French's overflowing agenda, and on the other, it was due to animosities in the Greens. Many in the party consider Macron to be a neo-liberal who wants to drag the welfare state first of all. An unjustified charge. Alternatively, for a kind of would-be hegemon, the genuinely French interests as European trimmings. A not entirely unjustified charge.
Instead of putting aside these sensitivities in the sense of a higher-level matter, for example the European elections, they lived up to their expectations again in the spring. Sven Giegold, European MEP, publicly accused a Macron defected French Greens of stabbing. As far as Europe is concerned, they certainly did not wait for Macron, Giegold wrote insulted.
Ursula von der Leyen, Commission President proposed by Macron, did not want to support the European Greens, which is said to have caused minor stomach aches, at least for Robert Habeck. The "quasi-ruling party" (Habeck) may remain in waiting, but likes to retire to the Trotzecke.
A first German-French sniffing took place already on Friday. In Berlin, the two Greens leaders met with Clément Beaune, Macron's chief adviser for Europe and one of his closest confidants. From its environment afterwards it was said, Beaune was a little disappointed by this meeting. Baerbock and Habeck would have tried to find out how "green" Macron really is.
Now they have to be patient.
