Paris (EFE).- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ratified today from Paris his country’s commitment to military support for Ukraine, “as long as it is precise and as broad as needed”, including tanks and air defense batteries, ” in close consensus among ourselves and with our allies in the United States.”
“(Vladimir) Putin’s imperialism will not win,” the German leader said at the joint ceremony of the German Parliament and the French National Assembly from the Sorbonne University, adding that “we, together with our friends and allies, will write a new chapter in European history.
Scholz’s intervention is part of the ceremonies this Sunday for the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty and are marked by pressure on Berlin to authorize the shipment of German-made “Leopard2” tanks, which Ukraine claims for its defense. .
Scholz praised the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the presidents of the French National Assembly and the German Parliament, Yael Braun-Pivet and Bärbel Bas, the achievements of the “Franco-German axis” as a European engine since founding times, then under Charles deGaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
The Élysée Treaty cemented reconciliation between the two countries “on the wounds of the Second World War” and made France the “indispensable country” in the construction of a united Europe.
The chancellor then highlighted the incorporation into the “great project of a Europe in peace” of successive countries, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, “that had broken away from their dictatorships”, which were followed by other eastern states that had been behind the Iron Curtain and that they “demanded democracy”.
“Together we managed to implement the principle of law, above the law of the strongest”, he continued, while Putin’s Russia intends to impose “its imperial objectives” and “forcibly change the borders”, a situation in which ” Ukrainian men and women pay a terrible price.
Scholz’s visit to Paris is marked by pressure from allies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Baltic countries on Berlin to agree to kyiv’s demands to send the “Leopard” tanks.
At the meeting last Friday at the US base in Ramstein (Germany) no agreement was reached on the matter, which has precipitated pressure and criticism of German indecision.
The appointment with Macron should also bury the divergences in the German engine that appeared in 2022, when both governments clashed on defense and energy matters.
After the ceremony at the Sorbonne University and commemorative acts of the Élysée Treaty, both leaders will preside over a Franco-German Council of Ministers that will culminate in a joint press conference at around 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT).
