Franco-German cooperation: "The emergency is Donald Trump's customs duties," according to Patrick Martin-Genier, expert on European issues.

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France Télévisions: Emmanuel Macron went to Germany to discuss economic competitiveness. According to European Commission projections published in May 2025, France is expected to record the worst public deficit in the eurozone in 2025 and 2026. Is this a new situation?

Patrick Martin-Genier, lecturer at Sciences Po and expert on European and international affairs : The situation is difficult. France, for the first time, has always had a significant deficit, while Germany, for its part, had enshrined in its Constitution the prohibition of a budget deficit. The day after the legislative elections , the Bundestag, the Parliament, met under its former formation to make a constitutional amendment to allow German debt and investments of several hundred billion euros under the Merz mandate. So indeed, the situation is difficult, but Germany has made a major effort to lower taxes, particularly for businesses. And as recently as Tuesday, July 22 and Monday, July 21, Chancellor Merz received business leaders. And what did Merz say? "Germany is back." So it's true that we have an extremely difficult economic, political, and social situation in France, while Germany is back with a desire to invest, business leaders who are going to invest considerably again, a reduction in taxes and at the same time an increase in wages. There is really a gap between France and Germany that could actually hinder this desire to revive cooperation between the two countries.

How exactly does Germany view the French economic situation today?

Germany is very concerned, particularly Frédéric Merz. I know that, having met with the French ambassador in Berlin the day after the elections, there was a real desire to relaunch Franco-German cooperation. But the fact remains that today, the urgency is also the future air combat system, which is a difficulty today because there are real differences between France and Germany. So we expect the two leaders to actually be able to agree on this.

But that's not the emergency. The emergency is the customs duties with Donald Trump . We know very well that there are differences between the two countries. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, wants a simple and quick agreement, in agreement with Friedrich Merz, while the French President has said that he wants us to be much tougher with the United States. So there is a difference. And finally, the very important point is the fight against irregular immigration. The German Minister of Internal Affairs, Alexander Dobrindt, went with his Polish colleague to the Belarusian border to see how to fight against irregular immigration. So today, we'll say that there are economic and social difficulties, but the emergency is Donald Trump's customs duties and irregular immigration. In Germany, we must see this pressure from the far right, from the AfD, from Ms. Weidel, who is rising in the polls. And so today, Merz's political objective is to say: "I am reviving economic activity and I am fighting against illegal immigration."

On illegal immigration and the pressure from the far right in both countries, the two leaders are quite in sync.

Yes, because every day there are polls to find out where the far right is. There were legislative elections on February 23rd. It is the second largest party, it has more than 150 members of the Bundestag. Some are even thinking of banning this political party because it is under the surveillance of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which means that it goes very, very far. But yes, every day there are polls. Why? Because there will probably be regional elections soon in these countries. And so in some Länder, the AfD is in first place, even though everything was done to remove it from responsibilities.

Merz's goal is to clearly show that he's going to fight this. In fact, he just sent more than 80 citizens back to Afghanistan, to show that he's going to take an extremely restrictive stance. The problem is also that the borders between Germany and France, but also between Germany and Poland, are going to be reestablished. And that creates problems, particularly for the functioning of the Schengen system.

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