French-German ties under strain as they mark 60-year alliance

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in Paris on January 22 to meet President Emmanuel Macron before the pair lead a joint cabinet meeting to mark the Elysee Treaty signed on January 22, 1963.

But the two leaders' relationship is seen as cordial at best.

"Scholz isn't very European at all, he's much more 'Germany first'," a senior member of Macron's Renaissance party, who asked not to be named, told reporters this week.

In Paris there's an impression of German "disinterest in the French-German relationship", said Jacob Ross, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin.

The frictions are even being felt by the public, with 36 percent of French respondents and 39 percent of Germans telling pollster Ipsos this week that relations were suffering.

But the legacy of the 1963 treaty — signed in Paris by post-World War II leaders Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle — remains on everything from military cooperation to youth exchanges.

READ MORE: Is Germany undermining EU unity?

Alternative partners

Macron's first term in 2017 was marked by a charm offensive, as the centrist leader tried to restore French economic credibility with Berlin and Brussels through sometimes painful and unpopular reforms.

Eventually, his warm ties with Scholz's predecessor Angela Merkel helped secure the unprecedented European response to the coronavirus crisis.

Macron has also been cultivating other European partners, signing bilateral treaties with Italy and Greece in 2021 and another this week with Spain.

"If it's difficult with Germany right now, and not moving forward as he might hope, then he'll try to find alternative partners," Ross said.

READ MORE: France, Germany spar as frustrated EU leaders hold energy talks

Ukraine-Russia War

Differences between France and Germany have bubbled to the surface since Russia began attacks on Ukraine in February last year.

Both were initially reluctant to alienate Russia, Germany's top supplier of natural gas which France had seen as a key global power player.

But as the war's toll mounted, France sent powerful mobile artillery to Ukraine ahead of the Germans last April, and this month announced supplies of light tanks before Washington and Berlin decided to send infantry fighting vehicles.

Like Britain and Poland, France is pushing Berlin to deliver modern Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kiev, or at least to allow re-export of the German model widely sold abroad.

Many observers expected German-French plans to cooperate on next-generation tanks and fighter jets to gain urgency after the war prompted Scholz to declare a "new era" in defence policy.

But "even under the pressure of the events in Ukraine, apparently there isn't much movement" with contracts for the next stage of tank development still unsigned, researcher Ross said.

France has also been cut out of a German-led European missile defence programme dubbed Sky Shield, expected to use German- and US-made equipment rather than Italian or French alternatives.

READ MORE: Can Germany and France ease tensions in the Ukrainian crisis?

Relationship 'less real' 

For Berlin, "things have got very complicated because Germany's economic and political model is being put to the test," said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a former French ambassador to Berlin.

In particular, any move by China to ape Russia's grab for Ukraine in Taiwan would blast Germany's second vital great-power trading relationship, with some in Berlin now pushing to diversify the country's foreign markets.

"We have to become aware that... the time may come when China oversteps its bounds," SPD leader Klingbeil told Die Zeit.

Closer to home, Germany's European partners are trying to show Berlin that it can't throw its economic weight around willy-nilly.

Last year, France and other neighbours kicked up a fuss fearing Germany's $216-billion bid to subsidise energy costs for its consumers would crowd them out of the market.

Perhaps most troublingly "the relationship has become less real" for ordinary French and Germans, said Gourdault-Montagne, and "lost some of its emotion".

Ever fewer people in each country are studying the other's language, Ross pointed out.

"In 10, 15 or 20 years... fewer people will be in a position to develop a deep understanding of the partner country," he warned.

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