French President Emmanuel Macron meets Angela Merkel in Berlin. May 15,2017. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved. Britain for one is quite unprepared for the ultimate project of the new French president: the restoration of Franco-German leadership in Europe. For centuries, it avoided a concentration of power in Europe and paid a blood price when it failed in 1914 and 1939.
It failed again in the post-1945 era, but successfully divided and conquered after it joined the European Union. Britain played France and Germany off against each other and crafted an EU to suit its interests. The result was the single market, the eastward expansion and the never ending opt-outs.
Emmanuel Macron wants a bargain in which Germany secures the euro with a fiscal union while Paris agrees to structural reform at home. That will be very difficult to deliver, but a coherent, decisively-led Europe will put Britain in an invidious position.
