France and Germany sideline energy spat during state visit as far-right threat looms over EU elections

A postponed state visit to Germany has given France’s president Emmanuel Macron the chance to demonstrate his pro-European credentials in the week before the upcoming EU elections – and to showcase his unchanged but so far mostly unfulfilled ambition to lead the way on many issues in the union together with German chancellor Olaf Scholz. About one year after delaying the first official state visit by a French president in more than two decades, Macron used the invitation by German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the ceremonial head…