German-French relations | No borders: Berlin is wearing down France's bourgeoisie

France's farmers are unlikely to be fans of Friedrich Merz - especially if he prevails on agricultural cuts at the EU level. Photo: dpa/Philipp von Ditfurth The fact that in France the so-called political center, the liberal, liberal-conservative bourgeoisie, is being harassed by the extreme right, namely the Rassemblement National (RN), is one of the commonplaces of recent German reporting on the neighboring country. And it's also true: Marine Le Pen is leading the polls by far before the presidential election. That the so-called center is now also threatened by the extreme left, by protesting, marauding chaotics, by La France insoumise under Jean-Luc Mélenchon: That is the next bogeyman that blows through the Teutonic forest of leaves. At the core of the matter, this is also true: there is a growing willingness among large sections of the population to rebel against the social impositions imposed on them by the liberal bourgeoisie - and this is driving them to the left. The standard formula of all bourgeois ideologists is now emerging: that France's so-called center is being relentlessly destroyed by the alleged edges, by right-wing and left-wing extremism.

Jörg Kronauer is a journalist and member of the editorial team at www.german-foreign-policy.com.

Undisputed: France's liberal bourgeoisie faces numerous problems, many of them of their own making. Not the least of them is their large eastern neighbor. German politics is increasingly cornering the forces for which President Emmanuel Macron stands and fights. The most recent example: the negotiations over the EU budget. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is pushing hard for the EU Commission to withdraw its plans for slightly higher spending and to dramatically cut its draft budget. France in particular would feel the consequences. Because, depending on the situation and the will of the Federal Republic, the agricultural budget would be cut; That would hit France's farmers hard, who are already being hit - keyword: Mercosur free trade agreement. If Macron cannot prevail against Merz in Brussels - and that is exactly what we have to expect - then his liberal bourgeoisie would have to push through the cut in agricultural subsidies. How France's farmers would react is anyone's guess. Macron would therefore be further undermined – by the author of the cuts, Berlin.

Things are not really different in the economy, or more precisely: in those industrial sectors in which France is still relatively strong; These include aerospace, armaments, and new: AI. Does anyone remember the high-tech sixth generation fighter jet, the FCAS? It would have been extremely important for France's defense industry to maintain its strong position in military aviation, but Germany canceled the joint project. No, one should not mourn a murderous arms project. But the fact that projects that are important for France are being canceled while German projects receive billions of dollars - just think of Rheinmetall - is at the expense of the liberal French bourgeoisie.

There are various other examples. France's space industry would benefit from the EU project IRIS2, the "European Starlink", if it actually comes to fruition. The fact that this is no longer entirely clear is because Berlin is using its skyrocketing defense spending, among other things, to build a “German Starlink” solely for the Bundeswehr. If there are no longer enough funds for the former, it would be a bitter blow for French space travel - and with it again for Macron.

This also applies to the fact that the federal government no longer supports the close cooperation between SAP and the recently very promising French AI company Mistral, which was initiated at the end of 2025. As an alternative, a cooperation with Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg is being discussed and possibly also with its Canadian partner company Cohere. German-German, maybe German-Canadian, but just not German-French? This has long been a system; the examples could easily be multiplied. France's liberal bourgeoisie is certainly being destroyed by many things, but certainly also by the German government in Berlin.

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