France: Help, We’re Trapped in a German Europe!

Germany is rearming at breakneck pace, and Europe will never be the same again.

When the European project began in the 1950s, France believed it could use the project to dominate Europe. Germany was defeated and divided, leaving France as the most powerful West European nation.

But Germany didn’t stay down for long. Within a few decades, a Franco-German engine drove the Continent.

The 2008 financial crisis exposed that Germany was the senior partner. Simon Heffer wrote in the Daily Mail that the world was witnessing “the economic colonization of Europe by stealth by the Germans.” Nigel Farage told the European Parliament: “[W]e are now living in a German-dominated Europe.”

But France still believed itself second among equals. Surely Germany would never domineer France the way it had southern European countries like Greece, Cyprus and Portugal.

France had one critical advantage. Germany was the European Union’s most populous nation, its largest economy, its leading manufacturer, its top exporter and the least indebted major government. But France was the EU’s top military spender. Britain sometimes took the title, but even when it was in the EU, it was always a reluctant partner; in 2016, Brexit ended that competition entirely.

Germany may have dominated economically, but it needed the French military.

Germany’s spending spree has overturned this dynamic. Last year, France spent €47.2 billion (us$54.3 billion) on defense; Germany spent €86 billion. By 2030, Germany aims to be spending €150 billion a year, while France is aiming for just €67.4 billion.

A Europe where Germany’s military budget is more than double France’s is a very different place. France is suddenly waking up, realizing it is trapped in a German-dominated Europe.

“Germany is rearming in German mode, that is to say, massively,” wrote Le Figaro last week. It pointed out that this windfall of spending is largely being handed to German defense giants. Traditionally, French defense companies have been larger and more experienced, but that is coming to an end.

Philippe de Villiers sounded a powerful warning about France’s reduced status in Le Journal du Dimanche, which is more aligned with France’s fringe right.

“Since Maastricht, everything has changed, Germany has taken control of the key institutions of the Union,” he wrote. “She is the one in the couple who wears the pants. On every subject, it is Berlin that makes Paris bend.”

Germany has built up an impressive list of victories, he claims:

• Trade deals prioritize Germany’s export market over French agriculture.
• The mercosur trade deal with Latin America is being brought into force provisionally despite strenuous French objections.
• Europe’s energy and electricity market favor Germany, with its reliance on gas and coal power, not France with its heavy investment in nuclear power.
• The euro keeps France’s currency stronger than it would otherwise be, hurting its exports. Meanwhile it is weaker than the Deutschmark, helping Germany.

“[T]he idea of a French Europe is dead,” he wrote. “We made a German Europe. Nice work!”

The mercosur deal in particular demonstrates Germany’s growing power. Typically a treaty like this would require the approval of the European Commission, then the European Parliament, then every EU nation would have to ratify it. France thought it could block it from ever coming into force.

Yet Germany found ways to push it through. First it split the treaty into two parts, placing everything that would require ratification from all members in a separate agreement. It pushed forward the part that did not require unanimity.

Its opponents fought back. The European Parliament kicked it into the long grass, saying the Court of Justice would have to rule on whether this split was legal. The treaty would be delayed for up to a couple of years while the court deliberated—they thought.

But then the European Commission announced it would implement the treaty “provisionally,” without the approval of Parliament or the courts.

The French farmer lobby—which has had its way in the EU for decades—exploded. Pierrick Horel, president of Young Farmers, called it “a small earthquake in Europe.” François Walraet, who leads the farming union Coordination Rurale, complained, “We feel that France no longer has any weight; it is Germany which decides.”

Meanwhile German politicians have started talking to their French counterparts as if they’re speaking to colonial underlings. German Foreign Minister Johann Wasephul complained that France’s military spending is “insufficient.” France, he says, is “called upon … to make one or two cuts in the social sector” and “make savings in other areas so as to create the latitude needed for the core goal of Europe’s defense capability.”

The French, as you can imagine, did not enjoy being told by a German to cut their pensions to fund their military.

But France still has a few cards left to play—and French President Emmanuel Macron is playing them. A growing number in France want to fight this German dominance. But Macron clearly sees German dominance of the EU as a foregone conclusion. He will not try to fight it. Instead, he’s aiming to use what cards he has left to remain Germany’s number two.

One of those important cards is nuclear weapons. France has them; Germany doesn’t. On Monday, Macron announced:

• France will build more nuclear warheads for the first time since 1992.
• French nuclear bombs could be deployed on French planes in foreign countries—the first time France has made such an offer.
• France and Germany have discussed closer cooperation and German participation in French nuclear exercises.

The war against Iran is allowing France to demonstrate something else it can bring to the table: its navy. France operates the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside of the United States. Its navy has more than double the active personnel of Germany. Mainland France has coasts on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and it has a much larger network of bases around the world. When Cyprus came under attack from Iran, France dispatched a frigate and its aircraft carrier to the region.

Macron clearly believes France can be more powerful as a German ally that it can on its own or with the U.S. He is showing Germany what France can still bring to the table.

“Macron is offering Germany the leading role in a European nuclear military, but is blinded by a false love of Germany,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in 2024. Germany has long ago supplanted France as the clear leader of a European superstate. Yet Macron is still trying to create that state, clinging to the role of Germany’s number two.

There’s an important prophesied dynamic to note here. We’ve long said that the French are generally the descendants of biblical Reuben (see our reprint “France in Bible Prophecy”).

As the firstborn of Jacob’s children, Reuben was in a natural position of leadership. But he would not take a stand; rather, he tried to sway the outcome from behind.

Genesis 37 describes the time when Jacob’s sons decided to get rid of their brother Joseph. Reuben didn’t confront their decision directly. Instead he suggested they leave him a pit to die. Reuben intended to free Joseph later, but while he was gone, the rest of the brothers sold Jacob into slavery.

“This is history, and it is in the context of end-time prophecy,” wrote Mr. Flurry. “This history is going to be repeated. Together with Genesis 49, this gives a clue of what France, modern Reuben, will do in this end time.”

Britain and America, descended from Joseph, will be betrayed by Germany. France will be the most powerful and populous of the Israelite nations that sides with Germany.

“There will come a point when Germany goes into full attack mode against America and Britain,” wrote Mr. Flurry. “Many prophecies reveal this. At that point, France will think, What have we gotten ourselves into? But then it will be too late!”

Some in France are already wondering what they’ve gotten themselves into. But Macron is determined to get what power he can by standing behind Germany, not confronting it. France may try to blunt some of the rising beast’s attack, but it will fail once again.

“Once they see the ‘beast’ power they have empowered and recognize what utter devastation they have helped cause, the French people, like Reuben anciently, will be utterly shocked!” wrote Mr. Flurry.

Soon it will be too late for France to turn from its course, if it is not already. It is well on the way to its prophesied role of enabling Germany. It’s a critical role on the timeline of end-time events, as Mr. Flurry explained in his article “France’s Deadly Ignorance About Germany.”