Serious discontent has arisen in Europe against the backdrop of French President Emmanuel Macron's lack of support for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Modern.az reports that the "Financial Times" publication wrote about this, citing a high-ranking European diplomat.
According to the information, Macron “betrayed” Merz by not acting as his ally at the European Union summit on the issue of using frozen Russian assets for aid to Ukraine.
According to the source, Macron understands that this step will have political consequences: “Macron sold Merz out, and he himself knows that he will have to pay the price for it,” the diplomat stated.
It is noted that after more than 16 hours of discussions on the night of December 19, EU leaders agreed to allocate 90 billion euros in financial support to Ukraine from the general budget for 2026–2027. However, the summit participants rejected the idea of financing these funds from frozen Russian assets.
The publication writes that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is considered the “killer” of this idea. According to the information, the cautious stance of Italy and France, particularly their concerns regarding the financial guarantees demanded by Belgium for risk sharing, significantly influenced the final decision of the summit.
It is reported that although Macron initially did not openly oppose Merz's proposal, his team later expressed doubts about the legal aspects of the deal. As a result, the French president joined the position of the countries that opposed this idea at the summit. According to the diplomat, Macron's weak domestic position forced him to support Meloni's line.
