German opposition leader urges response to Macron's Europe speech

The German government needs to respond to a recent speech on Europe's future given by French President Emmanuel Macron, the head of the largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said on Sunday.

The challenges facing Europe should not be met with fear and cowardice, CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wrote in his weekly email to supporters.

"And for that reason, Macron's speech this week deserves a forceful and convincing speech on Europe from Germany as well," Merz wrote in reference to the French president's keynote speech to the Sorbonne University in Paris on Thursday.

"We must realize today that our Europe is mortal, it can die," Macron told his audience. "It depends solely on our choices, but these choices must be made now."

Europe had to expand its sovereignty and defend its values in the face of military threats, the competition between the United States and China, and questions being placed over democracy, he said.

The speech followed almost seven years after his first speech on Europe at the Sorbonne in September 2017. There was no response from the then German chancellor Angela Merkel, who left office in 2021.

Merz came out in favour of improving German-French cooperation. A positive sign in this regard was that the defence ministers of the two countries had made specific plans for the construction of a new battle tank to be used by both, he said.

"Battle tanks are, however, only a small part of the broad palette of issues that should bind us more closely to France again and which have remained unanswered by Germany since Macron's first speech," he wrote.

Merz is a likely candidate for the German chancellorship when parliamentary elections are held in the second half of next year.