As soon as he got home, he was already leaving. Emmanuel Macron is expected Tuesday morning in Amsterdam for the first state visit of a French president to this country since 2000. “It is the expression of a Franco-Dutch rapprochement that it was time to recognize it , the result of a form of European tectonics that can be dated at least to 2016” with Brexit, notes the French presidency.
The Head of State and his wife, Brigitte Macron, will be welcomed by King Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima, with a ceremony accompanied by a review of the troops. A state dinner will also be offered in their honor on Tuesday evening at the royal castle. The head of state, who returned from China on Saturday, will deliver a speech on the economic and industrial sovereignty of the EU on Tuesday afternoon at the Nexus research institute in The Hague.
Emmanuel Macron is pushing for a massive investment plan in the green industry in Europe to respond to that launched by Joe Biden. The EU is also concerned about excessive dependence on China in certain strategic economic sectors. “We don’t want to depend on others on critical issues,” insisted Emmanuel Macron on Sunday in an interview with echoes. “The day you no longer have a choice about energy, about how to defend yourself, about social networks, about artificial intelligence because we no longer have the infrastructure on these subjects, you leave history for a moment.
The social crisis in France never far
In the wake of the speech, Paris and The Hague will sign a “pact for innovation” on Wednesday, with the key to cooperation in semiconductors, energy and quantum physics. In this area, the Twenty-Seven plan to invest seven billion euros, “which is greater than what both the Americans and China are doing”, underlines the Elysée. “But none of the European countries alone will succeed, we need collaboration, we need the strengths of each of the actors”, insists Paris.
The Head of State, who will be accompanied by seven ministers (Foreign, European Affairs, Armed Forces, Interior, Energy Transition, Industry, Research and Transport), will also have intergovernmental consultations with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his team on Wednesday.
As in China last week, the political and social crisis that has shaken France for three months around the pension reform is likely to invite itself into the visit. 8,000 km from Paris, Emmanuel Macron had continued to scrap with the boss of the first French union, Laurent Berger (CFDT), and engaged in a ping-pong with his Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, who seemed to stand out from his offensive line.
The week promises to be tense once again with a new day of mobilization on Thursday and a long-awaited decision by the Constitutional Council on Friday, which could invalidate all or part of the reform.