Frexit calls erupt after new German chief launches bitter attack on Macron’s nuclear plans

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The leader of the German Greens, now Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock said her country will oppose Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to classify nuclear electricity as green energy.

During her first visit to Paris, Ms Baerbock said: “Germany will oppose France’s efforts to classify nuclear electricity as green energy.”

Asked about the nuclear issue, the German foreign minister did not hide her differences on the nuclear issue, which President Macron wants to include in a European list of “green” energies.

Speaking after a meeting with her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, she added: “It is well known that we have divergent positions on the nuclear issue.”

The move prompted Generation Frexit leader to urge French people to vote for France to leave the EU in a referendum as soon as possible.

He blasted: “Germany is opposed to the classification of nuclear energy as ‘green energy’, wanted by France.

“If only for that, any Frenchman attached to the sovereignty and the independence of France should want Frexit.

“Let’s take back control.”

Macron wants to build new nuclear reactors in France, while Germany’s plans to phase them out are well established.

The new German coalition agreement makes no mention of the issue, however, which Paris believes leaves room for compromise.

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But asked on Friday about differences between Germany and France over whether nuclear power should be labelled sustainable, which France wants, Chancellor Olaf Scholz skirted the question.

He said: “It is very clear that each country pursues its own strategy to fight man-made climate change. What unites us is that we recognise that responsibility and are ambitious.

“Germany has decided that it will bank on an expansion of renewable energy.”

Arriving at the Elysee palace, the new chancellor was greeted with a fistbump by Macron, who then accompanied him up the steps, patting him on the back.

The French president had developed a friendly relationship with Merkel, who broke with German tradition by backing unprecedented joint European Union efforts to raise debt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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But the two remained at odds over some key issues, including Germany’s gas imports from Russia, defence, and relationships with big political and economic competitors including China.

The size of Germany’s economy, the biggest in the 27-nation EU, gives any German chancellor outsized influence.

But Macron, who said Merkel had “taught much” to the “impetuous president” he was at the start, will try to use France’s six-month presidency of the EU, which starts on January 1, to advance his priorities while Scholz is finding his feet.

With fiscal discipline often a point of dispute between Paris and Berlin, and Macron seeking Germany’s support for his plans to overhaul EU budget rules, Scholz – formerly Merkel’s finance minister – was cautious on Friday.

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