Macron in Germany: Show of unity despite divisions over Ukraine, energy
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00:00 One of the major sources of attention has been a different attitude towards supporting
00:04 the Ukrainians in the war in Ukraine against the Russian invaders, with Emmanuel Macron
00:11 floating this idea quite recently, apparently without consulting his European counterparts
00:17 and colleagues on this, of putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine, which Olof Scholz
00:22 didn't take kindly to.
00:24 The Germans have been very slow to supply the Ukrainians with weapons.
00:30 They've refused to send these Taurus missiles which could strike inside Russia.
00:35 On the other hand, the Germans point out that they've given about 17 billion euros for aid
00:41 to Ukraine, including military aid, and the French have spent about 630 million only.
00:46 The French say, yes, they deliver what they can promise and promise what they can deliver,
00:50 and say that that money is very effective.
00:54 There are other issues.
00:55 A big divide over nuclear power, for example.
01:01 The Germans stopped using nuclear power three years ago.
01:05 They are now actually relying more on coal, which is, of course, in some sense is dirtier
01:11 in the immediate effect than nuclear power.
01:13 The French, on the other hand, supply their consumers with electricity and power from
01:18 nuclear sources, 70% of French energy comes from nuclear sources.
01:23 So there are some really big issues, and what the German commentators are saying here in
01:27 Berlin this week is that don't expect any big agreement on the big issues, but expect
01:34 another turn of the round, agreeing to disagree on some issues.
01:40 A lot of this is about a show of unity ahead of those crucial Euro elections coming up
01:44 in just two weeks' time.