Posted on 01/20/2026 7:40:33 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Just as Europe needs its Franco-German power couple to unite to tackle U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing menace to Greenland, relations between Paris and Berlin are under strain.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is vowing to form a joint front with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the coming days — revving up the cross-Rhine alliance often described as the engine of the EU — to secure a breakthrough with Trump.
But building what Merz calls a “common position” with Macron doesn’t come at an easy moment. Both sides will need to put aside months of frustration, suspicion and bad blood. French diplomats are worried by Berlin’s increasing assertiveness in styling itself as Europe’s dominant player, while the Germans are fed up with the French over a stalled joint fighter-jet program, their opposition to an EU-Mercosur trade deal, and a shelved plan to use Russian assets to finance aid for Ukraine.
The contrast between the French and German leaders in their approach to Trump was also on full display in their response to the U.S. president’s threat on Saturday to impose tariffs on EU countries that opposed his takeover of Greenland.
Macron, who often draws on a pugnacious Gaullist tradition of independence from the U.S., immediately vowed to punch back hard against Trump with the EU’s trade arsenal. The more emollient Merz, an avowed Atlanticist, played up the prospect of talking the U.S. president back from the brink.
Merz on Monday publicly acknowledged that Germany differed markedly on tone with France, which “wanted to react a little more harshly than we do” because Paris was less exposed to the onslaught of an all-out trade war with the U.S.
For the French, one infuriating obstacle to a unified position with Berlin is that Germany’s coalition government is internally divided in its views.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
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Suggestion for Germany: Attack through the Ardennes — they won’t see it coming.
Worst good-cop, bad-cop attempt ever
“Jeopardize” Is a verb that reveals plenty of bias on the writer’s part.
What a bunch of weenies.
We have to stop saving these fools from themselves.
It has cost us far too much blood and treasure.
5 years later, we got fooled too.
> Suggestion for Germany: Attack through the Ardennes — they won’t see it coming. <
Then they better act fast. The other day I fired off a telegram to Macron. I suggested that France extend the Maginot Line all the way to the English Channel.
After the Normandy invasion the French girls were pissed when they lost their German boyfriends.
Just take Alsace and Lorraine back; they won’t even notice.
The German automakers are already hurting badly from a drop in profits here due to earlier tariffs (yes, the dealers and foreign producers are eating a good part of the cost). German sales are also off in China.
Despite all the moralism in public pronouncements about "international law," etc., etc., the Germans are mainly self-interested in their approach to foreign policy.
The Frogs and the Krauts back at it again?
“Jeopardize” Is a verb that reveals plenty of bias on the writer’s part.
Let's hear your suggestion for a better substitute!
Regards,
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