In an unscripted moment, standing behind their podiums, the two leaders shared a smile that turned into a polite laugh. That was how Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz responded to a journalist’s question about whether Italy was on its way to replacing France as Berlin’s preferred partner, at the signing of an Italian-German “action plan” in Rome on Friday, January 23. They were quick to dispel any such notion. “There is no hierarchy in relationships, in Germany,” replied the German leader, who was accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and business leaders, while Meloni assured she did not “want to take anyone’s place.”
Paris had been informed of this bilateral meeting with the Italian leader. However, the event was still interpreted as an implicit response to recent differences between France and Germany. Despite the close relationship displayed between Merz and President Emmanuel Macron since the chancellor’s election in May 2025, disagreements have multiplied in recent months.
France opposed the agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur, which Germany supported. France blocked the use of frozen Russian assets to fund aid to Ukraine, a scenario personally backed by the chancellor. And there appears to be no progress on the French-German fighter jet project launched in 2017, even as Europe faces a need to rearm.
I am rarely proud of French politics but somehow Germany manages to make it happen.