Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will make his first trip abroad on Monday to Berlin, where he will meet and dine with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with the aim of
“nourishing and strengthening the Franco-German relationship”
, Matignon announced on Friday.
After a speech to the French community at the French embassy residence, the head of the French government will be received with military honors at 6:00 p.m. at the German chancellery, before an interview with Olaf Scholz.
This meeting will cover all
“bilateral, European and international subjects as well as questions of economic policy”
, the spokesperson for the German Chancellor said on Friday.
The two officials will then hold a joint press conference, then have dinner at the chancellery.
Olaf Scholz congratulated Gabriel Attal on January 9 for his appointment to Matignon in a message published
on
the
Gabriel Attal responded to him on the same social network that
“an ever more united France and Germany is a Europe that is ever stronger and moving forward.
See you soon !"
French President Emmanuel Macron went to Berlin on January 22, where he praised the commitment to Franco-German friendship of former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, in a speech mainly in German delivered during a national tribute in the Bundestag.
Several points of divergence
During a seminar in October between the two governments on the banks of the Elbe, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz conceded that the Franco-German couple was not in the best shape but displayed their determination to put it back on track. rails, including on the thorny issue of energy and the electricity market.
Gabriel Attal and Olaf Scholz should also not fail to mention the agricultural crisis, which affects their two countries, even if in France the unions called on Thursday for the lifting of the blockades after a series of government concessions.
Despite these demonstrations, Germany has not changed its position on the controversial draft trade agreement between the European Union and the Latin American countries of Mercosur, which France opposes.
“I am a supporter of free trade agreements, including the Mercosur agreement
,” Olaf Scholz said again on Thursday, when Emmanuel Macron congratulated himself on having ensured that this draft agreement was not not
“was concluded in a hurry”
,
“because we showed inconsistencies”
.
Divergences also remain on military aid to Ukraine.
Olaf Scholz pleads for an increase in this aid, targeting without mentioning France, the leading military power in the European Union.