The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, failed to garner support from EU leaders regarding the use of 210 billion euros of frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine. The primary reason for this is the lack of support from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Before the summit in Brussels, the French president did not express objections to Germany's initiative, but his team privately raised concerns about the legality of such a proposal, particularly regarding possible complications concerning national guarantees if these assets need to be returned to Russia in the near future.

An increasing number of countries, including Italy, supported Belgium, which has long opposed this plan, as most of the Russian assets are located there. As a result, Macron did not side with Chancellor Merz, effectively burying this idea.
“Macron betrayed Merz, and he knows he will have to pay for it. But he is so weak that he had no other choice,”said a senior European diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

This situation highlighted the imbalance between Germany and France: Germany's active stance and France's indecisiveness. The current state of affairs undermines hopes for a revival of cooperation between these countries, which once drove important political changes in the EU.
“There is a feeling in Brussels that Berlin is the main player, and France's influence is insufficient,”noted European policy expert Georgina Wright.

Change of roles in European politics

The head of the Europe department at Eurasia Group, Mujtaba Rahman, pointed out that in recent years the Élysée Palace has claimed that Germany's indecisiveness is hindering the development of European policy. However, now the roles of Macron and Merz have fundamentally changed.
“Now there is a chancellor who understands geopolitics and wants to engage and do more for Europe… but now it is Paris that cannot fulfill its part of the bargain,”he emphasized. According to the publication, Merz supported ideas that Paris has long backed, including European strategic autonomy and restrictions on imports from unfair countries. Recently, Berlin defended trade by restricting steel imports from China, which marked a new step for Germany.

France seems to be moving away from the principles of a strong European Union.
“There is a growing sense in Brussels that France is prioritizing national interests over EU interests… The old saying that 'France is all talk, talk, talk, no action' is becoming relevant again,”Georgina Wright pointed out

Party’s over, Paris: Fearful French cancel NYE concert on Champs-Élysées as migrant violence grows

By
Gabrielle Fahmy
Published Dec. 13, 2025, 9:23 a.m. ET

The normally proud and defiant French are waving the white flag in the face of migrant terror.

Paris has shockingly decided to dim the lights on its annual New Year’s Eve fête along the iconic Champs-Élysées.

The massive midnight concert that drew a jubilant crowd of a million people last year — with the festivities having drawn throngs to the “most beautiful avenue in the world” for six decades — has been scrapped and replaced by a pre-recorded video to be viewed in the safety and comfort of French living rooms.


The fireworks will still illuminate the Arc de Triomphe when the clock strikes 12, but with officials urging revelers to watch on television rather than in person, the soirée will be a far cry from the famed French joie de vivre of years past.

The famed avenue has become a flashpoint of violence lately, with throngs of young, mostly Muslim migrants streaming in from Paris’ infamous suburbs at night looking for trouble, looting lux stores, and brawling with Parisians and police.

The Paris police, which pressed the mayor to scrap the concert, cited security concerns such as “unpredictable crowd movements” without going into details – but critics loudly blamed France’s open-door immigration policies.
“It’s obvious that this is the result of massive unvetted Muslim immigration into Europe,” said Daniel Di Martino, an immigration fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

“Western Europe has had a terrorism problem for many years now, and that has been exacerbated because of unvetted Islamic immigration as a result of the refugee crisis of over a decade ago.”

Even open-air Christmas markets are being treated as high-risk targets by France’s interior minister.

In an urgent letter to state officials, he warned of a “very high terror threat” – citing groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS – and ordered beefed up police presence at Christmas markets, and to restrict vehicle access and mobilize intelligence agencies.
“Christmas markets are popular and symbolic gathering places that are likely to be targeted by violent or politically motivated attacks,” said Laurent Nuñez.

Nuñez cited the 2018 Strasbourg Christmas market attack, where 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, a French Moroccan “gangster-jihadist,” opened fire as he yelled “Allah Akbar,” killing five people and wounding 11. Police shot him down after a two-day manhunt.

According to the minister, six terrorist plots have been thwarted to date in 2025 in France.

“When you read the propaganda of terrorist groups, Christmas markets are targets as are law enforcement officers, as are places of worship of the Jewish community, as are a number of public institutions,” he said on French television
Last month, Le Monde reported that France is dealing with a new generation of younger, less experienced and more unpredictable jihadists.

The six thwarted attacks this year were plotted by terrorists who were between 17 and 22.

“Europe simply welcomed millions of people who were Muslim, who were not highly educated, and who bought into terrorist ideology and are willing to commit terrorist acts and have a culture that is incompatible with Christianity,” Di Martino said. “And some of them actually hate Christianity, and that’s why they target Christmas markets.

“They’re much less educated. They’re much more Islamic. The children of those immigrants are not integrated into the rest of society. They’re still living in ethnic enclaves there. They don’t have high employment rates. They’re actually much more likely to be out of a job. So, they’re much poorer.”