Macron begins Germany trip in first state visit in 24 years

PARIS/BERLIN — Emmanuel Macron on Sunday embarked on the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter of a century, seeking to soothe ties as the European Union's two biggest powers seek to show unity ahead of next month's EU parliamentary elections.

The visit was originally meant to take place last July but was postponed at the last minute due to rioting in France following the killing of a 17-year-old by police, The Associated Press reported.

Macron's plane landed at a Berlin airport, according to Agence France-Presse, at the start of his three-day, four-stop visit that will seek to emphasize the historic importance of the postwar relationship between the two key EU states, as France next month commemorates 80 years since the D-Day landings.

While Macron is a frequent visitor to Germany as Paris and Berlin try to coordinate their positions on EU and foreign policy, this is the first state visit with full pomp since Jacques Chirac came in 2000.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, were to be hosted by Germany's president Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The visit comes as Germany celebrates the 75th anniversary of its post-World War II constitution.

Steinmeier was expected to hold a state banquet for Macron at his Bellevue palace in Berlin on Sunday evening before the two presidents travel on Monday to the eastern city of Dresden, where Macron will make a speech, and on Tuesday to Muenster in western Germany.

The state visit will be followed later Tuesday by a meeting between Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and ministers from both countries at a government guesthouse outside Berlin.

The trip comes two weeks ahead of the European elections.

In a keynote address on foreign policy last month, Macron said: "Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die. It can die and this depends only on our choices."

Germany and France, which have the EU's biggest economies, have long been viewed as the motor of European integration though there have often been differences in policy and emphasis between the two neighbors on a range of matters.

"There are tensions in the German-French relationship but in part precisely because they have dealt with some difficult topics," Yann Wernert, a policy fellow at the Jacques Delors Center in Berlin, told Reuters.

The visit is "an attempt at the highest political level to demonstrate that the relationship is working", Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group think tank, told Reuters. "But there are still fundamental gaps on major questions that are looming over the EU."

Agencies Via Xinhua