Economies are growing; unemployment is falling. From Paris comes an avalanche of ideas to reinvigorate the EU. In Berlin, a polite public reception for French president Emmanuel Macron’s expansive vision struggles to conceal an ever tightening grip on Germany’s cheque book. Is Europe, you wonder, about to miss a rare opportunity?
For several years, Germany bemoaned the absence of a serious partner in Paris — a politician in the Elysée ready to modernise the French economy and restore the Franco-German dynamic to EU politics. If only, German policymakers lamented, the burden of European leadership could again be shared.
Angela Merkel’s government has got what it asked for. And more. Mr Macron’s passionate Europeanism is fused with the realism that says that France must put its own economic house in order. The months since the presidential election have seen the budget deficit cut, labour laws liberalised and taxes reduced. Mr Macron is paying for his seat at the table.