Ulrike Guérot is French-German, a professor of political science, she heads the department of European Studies and Democracy at the Krems University in Austria. She says: “Europe can only be successful if the German and French leaders move closer together.”

 

  
Derek Scally is from Ireland and works as the Berlin correspondent for the Irish Times. And he thinks: “For years, Germany’s EU vocation has been a self-deception: dusty, cliched phrases that are 20 years old and convince no one any more.”

 

Milan Nic is originally from Slovakia works as an analyst on eastern Europe for the German think tank DGAP. He says: “President Macron’s attempted polarization has so far benefited the populists. In a paradoxical way, it plays into the hands of Hungary’s Prime Minister Orbán."