In recent years, the German-French partnership has produced little of substance. Although President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly put forward proposals for joint projects, these have largely gone unheeded. Instead, a gradual estrangement appears to be taking hold, according to Dr. Landry Charrier. In France, Goethe Institutes are being closed, and at the same time, the country is withdrawing from funding joint programs and initiatives due to strained budgets. Overall, there is a growing impression that the populations of both countries are losing interest in one another.
Nonetheless, Dr. Charrier believes it is not too late to counter this trend. His analysis concludes that a committed base still exists, actively sustaining the German-French friendship. The crucial task now is to mobilize both financial resources and political will in order to preserve this central relationship and give it renewed momentum.