The president is cultivating a new ally to defend his plan to reindustrialize the Old Continent.
After Beijing last week, Emmanuel Macron is going to the Netherlands on Tuesday for a two-day state visit, accompanied by his wife, Brigitte. The couple will be received by the King, Willem-Alexander, and the Queen, Maxima, with a dinner at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, before, on Wednesday, a government seminar around the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, and seven members of the respective governments of the two countries. The last state visit by a French president dates back to Jacques Chirac in 2000.
However, Emmanuel Macron knows well Mark Rutte, dean of European leaders, re-elected three times since 2010, a centrist like him. The two men appreciate each other and regularly invite each other to dinner to chat casually about the subjects of the moment. Mr. Rutte did not hide his recent disapproval of the scale of public spending devoted by France (15% of GDP) to pensions. “The chemistry is very good”confirms a diplomat.
We would almost forget the tensions, not so old, with this Dutch Prime Minister, self-proclaimed leader of the “frugal” countries, cautious about European indebtedness pushed by President Macron. The Elysée never ceases today to praise the «convergence» views on many economic topics, “result of a European tectonics that can be dated to 2016 and Brexit”.
“Open without being naive”
With Great Britain, the Netherlands lost a natural ally in Europe and increased its efforts to increase its influence in the Union. After the 2021 elections and the installation of a new, broader, more pro-European coalition, Mark Rutte gradually abandoned the “frugal” axis, with the Scandinavians or Austria, to put himself back at the heart of community issues. . That’s good: the Franco-German couple beating the wing since the arrival of Olaf Scholz at the chancellery, Emmanuel Macron turns all the more willingly to this country of nearly 18 million inhabitants, fifth economy of the continent.
“Over the past year, since the beginning of the war, positions have come closer, particularly on what is called here “European sovereignty”, and particularly in its economic and industrial dimension, we underline in the entourage of the president. The Dutch understand that you can defend your interests without being protectionist and the French that you can be open without being naive.
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In Paris, we are delighted to see that strategic autonomy and industrial policy are no longer dirty words. A “revolution” for the Dutch. Most European states are now facing up to attempts at hegemony from China and the United States, particularly since the shock of the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the massive subsidy program that aims to siphon off industries tip of the Old Continent.
The Head of State plans to deliver a speech “offensive” in The Hague, this Tuesday, on this imperative of “European economic security”. It remains to mobilize the Twenty-Seven on the need to put the means. So far, The Hague, like Berlin, has reacted cautiously to proposals from Paris and Brussels to create a European sovereignty fund. An idea that Paris does not yet have “not abandoned at all”, we are assured at the Elysée.
To illustrate this ambition, Emmanuel Macron will participate on Wednesday in a round table with industrial leaders on semiconductors and quantum technology, the developing technology of supercomputers, a shift that Europe must not miss.
This move should lead to a “pact for innovation and sustainable growth” between the two countries, a defense agreement (although The Hague has chosen to buy American F-35 fighter jets) and a joint declaration on energy.
On nuclear, which divides Europe, the Netherlands say they are ready to develop new reactors in addition to renewables – perhaps an opportunity for France. “No one would have thought five years ago that we would consider this”we recognize on the Dutch side.
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