A few days before the European elections, scheduled for 9 June, Macron travels to Germany at the invitation of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in what will be the first state visit by a French President to the country in 24 years.

"The symbolic part is important because for several years a French president has not made a state visit to Germany, but it will be Tuesday afternoon that will have greater political weight because topics such as European integration, security, delivery of weapons to Ukraine, among others, will be discussed," revealed to Lusa Jacob Ross, a specialist in Franco-German politics at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

The German presidency revealed that Macron and Steinmeier will travel together to various regions of Germany, "thus highlighting the unique relationship between the two countries". On Tuesday afternoon, the last day of the visit, the French president will be with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Berlin.

"It is probably well seen by Macron that this visit is so close to the European elections. He will have the opportunity to make two major speeches, one in Dresden and the other in Münster, and will surely take the opportunity to send some signals regarding the elections because things are not exactly going well for his party in the polls. He needs a more 'dynamic' moment, so to speak, before the votes," added Jacob Ross.

Still, the analyst points out the difficulty Macron will have in bridging bilateral relations with Germany and the problems that concern the French and lead them to vote in these European elections.

"The most important issues for the French in these elections are the health system, purchasing power, that is, the weight of inflation, people continue to feel that prices are rising, but wages are not keeping up. These issues are very difficult to list with bilateral relations with Germany or further European integration. Macron tries, but has not been very successful so far," he stressed.

Jacob Ross recalls that the far right in France has been "very successful" in "turning these elections into a kind of referendum for or against Macron", which also does not help.

Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Germany begins on 26 and ends on 28 May.

After spending the first day of the visit in Berlin, where he will attend the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law and the 35th anniversary of the peaceful revolution, Macron will travel, on 27 and 28, to Münster and Dresden, a city in eastern Germany.

"It is also a sign that the European Union (EU) is turning more towards the East. The war in Ukraine has created the feeling that the EU's eastern neighbours and the member states of Eastern Europe are gaining more political weight and attention," said Jacob Ross.

During these visits, the emphasis will be placed "on the common challenges for which France and Germany can find shared European responses", it can be read on the presidency's website, adding that at "all stops", the two presidents "will celebrate European integration".

At the meeting with Scholz, at the end of the visit, support for Ukraine should be on the table.

"It has been discussed since the beginning of the year, the need for the delivery of more ammunition, more weapons (...) the sending of allied troops to the field (...) Another aspect that has been strongly defended by Macron, but not only by him, is the creation of this common debt plan to finance aid to Ukraine (...). I'm not sure if Germany agrees with that, there has been a lot of hesitation, especially from the liberals who are part of the government coalition, but we'll see," said the Franco-German politics specialist at DGAP.

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