There was a time earlier this century when few politicians in France would dare criticise Germany. The country was the powerhouse of Europe and Angela Merkel was the de facto president of the continent. Today there is political mileage to be had in attacking Germany, and the assaults have increased this year as campaigning intensifies ahead of June’s European elections.
Relations between the two countries are at their lowest ebb in decades
In an interview last week Marion Maréchal, the European candidate for Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party, said that as far as Germany is concerned, ‘France is looking more and more like a battered wife who can’t manage to leave her husband… I think France needs to start looking at things differently’.
Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, has blamed the German automobile industry for bullying the EU into agreeing international trade deals that are detrimental for France’s farmers.
For François-Xavier Bellamy, representing the centre-right Republicans in the European elections, it’s Germany’s short-sighted energy policy – specifically it’s abandonment of nuclear energy – that has weakened France.
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