Merz ‘election as Chancellor is planned for May 6th. The CDU boss had repeatedly announced in the election campaign to work as a chancellor for better Franco-German relationships. Already three days after the CDU/CSU election victory in the Bundestag election, he had visited Macron for a confidential meeting in Paris.
In an interview with “Paris Match”, Macron also emphasized that Europe would “increase pressure on Russia” over the next ten days. He believes that the United States has convinced that “threats and possibly sanctions” against Moscow. Now start an important phase. “The next 15 days will be crucial to enforce a ceasefire.”
Macron met US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj on Saturday on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral in the Vatican. Macron said “Paris Match” that he encouraged Trump “to take a harder approach” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I think we were successful in doing this meeting in the Vatican to put pressure on Russia again,” said Macron.
On Monday, Moscow unilaterally announced a ceasefire for the period between 8 and May 10th in Ukraine. Washington and Kiev then called for a permanent ceasefire. The biggest argument in conversations about a possible ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was the Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
So far, Kyiv rules out the peninsula in the course of an agreement to Moscow. Russia also claims four other Ukrainian regions.
