French Domestic Policy

French president’s ‘trust-building’ with Russian leader has failed

The poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny with the Novichok nerve agent has dealt a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron's strategy of rapprochement with Russia, which troubled some EU allies, analysts say.

Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron senses an opportunity to bring Russia's Vladimir Putin back in from the cold and potentially help usher in peace in Ukraine, an ambitious -- and risky -- undertaking that Western allies might not welcome.

When Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron sign a new Franco-German treaty in the historic city of Aachen on Tuesday, there will be much soaring rhetoric about the deepening ties between the two countries. To critics, though, the Treaty of Aachen is thin gruel. Anyone hoping for a new, tighter alliance between France and Germany, and for signs that the two countries might once again drive European integration, will be disappointed. 

When France and Germany sign a treaty on Tuesday in the historic border town of Aachen, it will be the culmination of 16 months of work by French President Emmanuel Macron to bring the anchors of Europe closer.

Days before French President Emmanuel Macron visited West and Central African leaders this week to talk security, Islamist fighters sent a defiant message -- a suicide attack on the headquarters of a five-nation force that is supposed to take the lead in fighting terrorism in the region.

Last year Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger agreed to set up the 5,000-member force dubbed the "G5 Sahel", urged along by pledges of training and support from France.

Nicolas Sarkozy used to promote himself as a transatlanticist or anglophile French president. Emmanuel Macron seems to have taken this approach a step further. Macron appears to have taken upon France and himself the responsibility of not allowing Britain and more importantly, the United States to drift too far away from Europe. Is he succeeding in this?

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron are due to hold a meeting in St. Petersburg.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Russia this week once threatened to split France from its European allies. Now it’s part of a wider European effort to tie President Vladimir Putin to the Iran nuclear accord.

PARIS - -- French President Emmanuel Macron has been notably active on the national scene since his election last year, launching initiatives aimed at modernizing France. He has also applied the same energy to foreign policy, with a global strategy dubbed "France is back."

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron was put on the spot this year in front of a room full of journalists when one asked, provocatively: Which man is more dangerous, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un; or Donald J. Trump?

French President Emmanuel Macron is accelerating EU defense cooperation. The biggest obstacle are the French-German cultural differences. Can terrorism, Trump and Putin force closer military cooperation in Europe? Yes, says Barbara Kunz, research fellow at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri) in Paris and expert on defense cooperation in the EU.

The French president’s speech on ambitious EU reform met politely raised eyebrows in Germany as Berlin struggles to build a new government. Any other day, a two-hour plea from the French president for a stronger European Union would have sent politicians in Germany rushing for the nearest mic. But just a few days after its own election, Berlin is distracted.

The right-wing spiral of Germany’s anti-EU Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has brought it shoulder to shoulder with France’s National Front (NF). The two parties see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including Russia. 

Russia watchers say Moscow is deploying considerable resources to swing the French election.

Primary elections of the French conservative party "Les Républicains": analysis by Barbara Kunz.