Macron hails Scholz; Europe’s new power couple meets

Macron hails Scholz; Europe’s new power couple meets

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron hailed a “convergence of views” with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday as the German leader met his key EU and NATO allies. On only the second day since taking over from his long-standing predecessor Angela Merkel, Scholz plunged into talks with Macron in Paris then European Commission chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel in Brussels. France and Germany are traditionally the joint motor of European integration, and Macron was keen to get the powerful German leader on side as he embarks on a six-month presidency role in the EU and his own re-election campaign.

Later, Scholz – a Social Democrat who runs a coalition government with a Green foreign minister – he was due to see NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, amid tensions with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine top of the agenda. Macron and Scholz, both pro-EU figures, are the new tandem in charge of Europe’s biggest economies and both champion strengthening Europe’s “strategic sovereignty”, a key theme of Macron’s coming six months in the EU chair.

Addressing Scholz as “dear Olaf” and using the informal “tu” pronoun in French, Macron said he had seen “a convergence of views, a desire to have