IMAGE: Arif Hudaverdi Yaman / Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron has canceled a trip to the Munich Security Conference, which begins next week. Therefore, Macron will not partake in a planned joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the conference.
According to French newspaper Le Figaro, the Elysée Palace said that the country’s president will focus on domestic issues in France and that his next trip abroad will not be until a visit to Africa in mid-March.
Commenting on this situation, the Süddeutsche Zeitung said that the Nord Stream 2 is one of the key reasons of the growing firft between French and German leaders.
The cancellation comes as the French president was reportedly attempting to torpedo the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which is funded by Russian energy giant Gazprom and supported by Germany, Belgium, Austria, Greece and Cyprus, and the Netherlands. France wants the EU’s Third Energy Package rules to be applied to the Nord Stream deal. These rules forbid the same company from generating, transmitting and selling energy at the same time. If this decision is made, it could derail the deal.
Germany is the biggest economy, industrial power and political power in the EU. It also spends a lot of money on financing the European bureaucracy. It is Germany and China, which are being considered by Trump’s United States as the main economic competitors. At the same time, Berlin faces the increasing competition in its traditional markets and has to find new ways to keep its leading industrial capabilities in the new environment. One of these ways is to reduce costs for the German industry is cheaper energy resources, which could be provided by the Nord Stream 2. Therefore, Berlin in fact plays a role of supporter of the project while the US and its European “partners” are opposing it.
France is another key EU state with a powerful economy. However, it’s now led by the creature of the global elites and the Washington establishment. Macron’s hands are tied and he cannot provide an independent foreign policy crouse, which would promote and defend solely French interests. So, Marcon’s France is working against its own interests. At the same time, there are little doubts that Marine Le Pen’s or Charles de Gaulle’s France would act in another way.
