In recent weeks there has been a growing chorus of French government officials, policymakers and academics calling for a revival and strengthening of the old Franco-German relationship. They all argue that the best hope for Europe is for the two largest economies in the eurozone to co-operate more closely and stimulate the rest of the union.

All the main breakthroughs in the European construction of the past 50 years, they point out, have after all directly stemmed from this bilateral relationship first struck up between General Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, subsequently reinforced by President Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt and then by François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl. But following German reunification, the relationship started coming under strain.