Franco-German Axis Has Never Been About Europe, Shielding Weaker Members: Researcher

Map of EuropeMOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Franco-German axis has never been about promoting European interests, focusing instead on strengthening the hand of the EU executive and forcing austerity on weaker member states, Thomas Fazi, an author and researcher, told Sputnik.France and Germany, two leading EU countries, were supposed to hold a joint cabinet meeting in late October but ended up postponing it until January, reportedly due to differences on energy and defense issues. Instead, it was replaced with a working lunch in Paris between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. All of this added to the ongoing concerns regarding relations between Paris and Berlin being at a low point and eroding.”At those moments when the Franco-German entente was at its strongest… we didn’t witness a flourishing of ‘European integration’ but rather a tightening of the EU’s anti-democratic system of technocratic rule, and its tendency to impose budgetary rules and structural reforms on member states outside democratic procedures and without democratic control. So the Franco-German axis has never been a good deal for the weaker countries of the Union,” he said.Fazi argued that the meltdown of the Franco-German alliance was a logical consequence of the nature of the relationship between the two countries, that existed as long as their interests were mutually compatible, which is no longer the case. Rather than having a common vision for the European Union, its two richest members have been sharing power under a “gentlemen’s agreement” that has allowed Paris to bend EU rules, including by running big budget deficits, in exchange for paying them lip service in Brussels.”It’s mostly been a gentleman’s agreement whereby the two countries agreed not to interfere with their respective national interests – meaning France accepted to support Germany’s economic agenda for Europe, while Germany accepted that France would be allowed to break those same rules… and wouldn’t interfere with France’s post-colonial policies abroad,” Fazi said.”So the Franco-German axis has never been about promoting ‘Europe’s interests,’ but rather the interests of the two countries through the institutions of the EU,” he added.The Franco-German split came after Germany painfully realized that it was at the receiving end of an economic war being waged against it by the United States. Fazi suggested that the US was also probably behind the September bombing attack that made the Nord Stream pipeline system, built to transport Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, inoperable.”Germany realizes all too well (even though it can’t say it out loud) that it is at the receiving end of an economic war being waged against it by the US, by driving a wedge between Germany and Russia and preventing the rise of a Eurasian economic bloc. Indeed, the US is also the most likely culprit behind the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline,” he said.”In this context, German elites realize that if they want to avoid deindustrialization they must break with the US’s New Cold Way strategy – which seeks to force Europe to cut off relations not only with Russia but with China as well… The Germans are going about it alone because they realize that most European countries are completely subjected to the US and NATO,” Fazi said.As for Germany’s key ally, France has shared some of its concerns about the cost of American LNG and the overall effect of the United States’ Ukraine policy on Europe — but it is ultimately too insecure, Fazi said, to follow Germany in openly challenging the US. The “European solutions” France keeps talking about are just a cover for going along with the status quo because, with countries like Poland feeling a much closer allegiance to Washington than to its neighbor, there is no common European middle ground to be found there.

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