Chancellor Scholz receives the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and they sign a declaration of “energy solidarity”
“Friends support each other in case of need,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this Friday at a joint press conference with the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, on an official visit in Berlin. Scholz’s words come on the day that the two governments have signed a declaration of “energy solidarity“.
The declaration establishes the mutual support between Paris and Berlin with the objective of “guaranteeing the energy supply” of both countries, at a time when the war in Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia and the end of the supply of Russian gas put against the ropes to the first European economy at the gates of a winter that is expected to be harsh. “Our countries need each other to overcome the energy crisis next winter,” added Borne.
Borne’s official visit was actually scheduled for last September, but had to be postponed after Scholz tested positive for coronavirus. In October, Paris also canceled a ministerial meeting between the two governments at the last minute for scheduling reasons. These two postponements fueled speculation about the state of the Paris-Berlin axis. The little tune What French President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Scholz have shown so far fuel speculation.
rapprochement
Borne’s visit to Berlin culminates a week in which three ministers from Scholz’s cabinet traveled to Paris. This rapprochement between the two governments has been baptized by the German media as “reconciliation week” and seems to be looking for a boost to the Berlin-Paris axis, described a thousand times as “the engine” of the European Union.
Three heavyweights of the German government – the Foreign Minister, the green Annalena Baerbock, the Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor, the also green Robert Habeck, and the Finance Minister, the liberal Christian Lindner – met President Macron in recent days, that he could thus be looking for other interlocutors in Berlin beyond Chancellor Scholz.