CONTINUE…
Decades of being the potential tactical nuclear battlefield of Europe has created something akin to the San Francisco Great Quake discussion. Nobody talks about it, nobody wants to think about it and if you ask (and I have), you get shut down and the conversation moves on to anything else.
So when Macron stood there saying it was time for a European nuclear deterrent, and that he was willing to place in effect, a French nuclear umbrella over the EU member states, in Germany you could hear a pin drop.
The reality is in effect already at that point. French, as British, nuclear weapons are already part of NATO’s unified command structure, but subject to withdrawal by either national government when they see it as appropriate.
That however is not the point. For Germany, Macron is doing the one thing they can’t do, and in doing so he is claiming French leadership of Europe, both in a military sense and a political one. That’s hard for the Germans to swallow after years of Merckl being the unquestioned leader. Shultz is no Merckl. Macron is no De Gaulle, but he is certainly raising the point nobody wants to talk about and you can’t ignore him. Western Europe is dumbstruck by it, Eastern Europe has a very different perspective.
It will be interesting to see how Macron makes this stick. Even in France many see it as impracticable and asking for trouble. Either way he’s forced a debate long overdue.