As of: February 28, 2024, 5:30 p.m
By: Georg Anastasiadis
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Press
Split
Once full-bodied expressions of support, today dangerous sandbox games: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj (right).
A comment from Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis.
© Ludovic Marin/AFP/Klaus Haag
French President Macron and Chancellor Scholz are conjuring up a dispute over the strategy for military support for Ukraine that could become a fiasco for the entire West.
A comment by Georg Anastasiadis.
How often have we listened to Sunday speeches and nodded reverently when it was solemnly demanded that Europe finally have to grow up because its big brother, the USA, can no longer and does not want to play kindergarten teacher?
And then this Franco-German sandbox battle!
President Macron and Chancellor Scholz are embarrassing Europe with their exchange of blows.
And, much worse: They are trampling on the fate of the brave Ukrainians, because the inability to supply the defenders with enough ammunition is now also accompanied by a deep, publicly celebrated strategic disagreement, in which one Moscow boldly threatens escalation and the other draws other red lines.
Putin now knows at the latest that he has shattered the much-vaunted unity of the West.
If things go wrong, the cacophony on both sides of the Rhine gives him the idea of testing, as he continues his conquest, what the aggro-Europeans think their NATO support promise is worth.
This threatens the security of all of us.
Paris and Berlin don't need to point the finger at the arch-villain Trump.
Scholz and Macron have to approach each other if their dispute is not to become a fiasco
The Green Anton Hofreiter is right with his outburst of anger: That is “irresponsible”.
The SPD leader is also embarrassed for the EU elections in June.
In her bold proposal to think about a common nuclear defense umbrella across Europe, Katharina Barley obviously did the math without Macron and Scholz.
They would rather live out their personal animosities than do justice to their task of keeping the continent together in a fateful situation.
Even if it is difficult for both of them, if their dispute is not to turn into a fiasco for the entire West, they have to approach each other.
Or, if your ego is too big for that, hire the Pole Donald Tusk as a couples therapist.
The fact that at least a man of reason is ruling in Warsaw again is a small glimmer of hope in dark times.
George Anastasiadis