Emmanuel Macron hosts AI summit, while EU braces for Trump tariffs – Europe live

… and those wide-spread protests in Germany they mentioned during the debate?

About 250,000 people took part in the largest demonstration in Munich on Saturday, just a week after 160,000 marched in Berlin to protest against the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party.

The election is less than two weeks away, on 23 February.

German election debate – snap analysis

Deborah Cole

Berlin correspondent

As the dust settled on the first televised debate between German chancellor Olaf Scholz and the frontrunner, conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, pundits and polls concluded that the incumbent failed to land the knock-out punch needed to close the double-digit gap in support between their parties.

A viewer survey for ZDF public television, one of the debate’s broadcasters, found that Scholz with his feisty performance came away as the more credible (42% to 31%) and likeable (46% to 27%) candidate. “Merz managed to seem even more arrogant than Scholz,” observed Daniel Brössler in the daily Süddeutsche. The two men tied at 36% when it came to expertise on the issues, in what many commentators called a particularly wonky night.

The often ill-tempered head-to-head (“How dumb can one be?” Scholz asked Merz, attacking his plan to undermine the EU migration deal with national measures) raises renewed doubts about how the CDU/CSU and the SPD could work together after the election — still the most likely scenario for a ruling coalition.

The most fiery clash came right at the start, when Scholz and the moderators accused Merz of breaking his word on shunning cooperation with the AfD. Merz denied this and renewed his pledge never to collaborate with the far right. Scholz charged that Merz had lost credibility and some opinion polls back him up, even as the CDU stays fixed on +/-30%.

Since we mentioned last night’s German election debate between the current chancellor, SPD’s Olaf Scholz, and his most likely successor if the polls are to be believed, CDU’s Friedrich Merz, let’s take a quick look at what they talked about.

1. Cooperation with the far-right

SPD’s Scholz further pursued the line of attack against Merz, suggesting the CDU/CSU could be open to formally working with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland after the election.

“That is really my concern. I don’t want to pretend it isn’t,” he said, accusing the opponent of “breaking the taboo” by passing a non-binding motion on migration with AfD votes.

“I’d explicitly state we are not going to do that. There are worlds separating us with regards to Europe, Nato, Russia, America. There is no common denominator between CDU and AFD,” Merz replied. “There will be no cooperation,” he said.

Asked if he believed that, Scholz said: “I do not,” pointing to a recent vote on a parliamentary motion. “He broke his word, he broke the taboo. I am no longer certain [about his position on AfD],” he said.

2. Migration

The two also clashed on migration, with Merz saying he refuses to accept the government’s view that “nothing more could be done” after a recent spate of knife attacks involving migrants.

However, Scholz defended his record and said he was already pushing the boundaries of law with his reforms, including through the reintroduction of border controls.

He also repeated his attack that Merz’s proposals would violate the EU law, at one point asking, “why should we be so stupid” to break the rules with national measures, just after the bloc agreed to reform them along the lines proposed by Berlin.

CDU’s Merz was also asked about the political price of his vote with the AfD, with thousands of Germans taking to the streets to register their protest against the far-right.

“What really pains me that we are witnessing demonstrations in this country against the on the fight against the far right, but nobody thinks of the victims of the families and would take to the streets in support of them,” Merz replied.

3. Ukraine

Merz also cautioned against rushing Ukraine into Nato, saying the alliance “does not accept member who are currently in the war,” and saying it was a “medium term” target.

Asked about whether he believes that an end to the war may be near under Trump’s renewed push for talks, he said:

“Let’s wait and see what the proposals will be during the Munich Security Conference. Without America, it won’t work, but there must be no decision made over the heads of Ukrainians.”

Scholz insisted that Ukraine needed further support to put it in the strongest possible negotiation position. “I think it remains a very dangerous war in which we have to ensure … that it does not escalate into a war between Russia and Nato,” he said.

On Ukraine’s membership of Nato, he said, “the option is there, but it is not happening any time soon,” and the focus should be on making sure Ukraine cannot be attacked again. He also insisted Ukrainian leaders must be involved in any talks.

The two also clashed over financing German defence expansion, with Scholz calling Merz’s suggestions of changing the debt break mechanism “ridiculous.”

Other topics

Scholz and Merz also talked about energy (with Merz calling the closure of nuclear plants “madness”), deindustrialisation, investment, tax, social security reforms, and how to deal with the “predictable unpredictability,” as Merz put it, of Donald Trump.

On coalition prospects, Merz said that “everyone who wants to govern with us will have to move towards the political centre” to tackle the rise of the AfD.

Scholz insisted that all parties “must do everything we can to ensure that the AfD is not in a [ruling] coalition.”

So, who won?

Erm, it’s difficult to say: analysts broadly described it as a “draw” between the two candidates. A poll by Wahlen and reported by Welt showed that 37% thought the incumbent came on top, with 34% pointing at Merz, and 29% saying there was no winner.

Interestingly, though, 47% of voters thought Scholz exceeded expectations in what was noticeably more aggressive and fierce outing from the chancellor. For Merz, the clear majority (61%) of voters said he performed as expected.

According to the poll, voters found Scholz more likable (46% to 27%) but judged their competence equally (36% each).

The election is on Sunday, 23 February.

What’s on the AI Action Summit’s agenda in Paris

Dan Milmo

Global technology editor

On safety versus opportunities:

I think the agenda is definitely different compared with the conference of Bletchley Park in 2023, safety isn’t at the forefront at all. The conference is split in sort of five themes, which are international governance, trust, innovation and culture, work and making AI work in the public interest. So it’s going to be, I think, a more positive summit in terms of its agenda.

I just think the issue of safety, it won’t go away, because safety in AI encapsulates a lot of things. It goes from biased outputs to it being used to create misinformation to systems evading control, which is a bit more of a medium to long term thing, I guess so it’ll still be there in the background. But I think this summit will is definitely going to focus on different issues.

On China:

I think the importance of China being involved in any discussions about a global effort on making sure that AI stays safe and is deployed responsibly, I think it underlines the fact that China really needs to be in those conversations. …

This is a time of geopolitical tension. We’ve seen Donald Trump has imposed tarrifs on China, and obviously there’s been retaliation from Beijing and in that sort of context, it’s difficult to imagine there being a willingness to down tools in one corner of this fight and collaborate over AI.

Listen to Dan’s comments in full in the latest episode of our Science Weekly podcast:

AI Action Summit in Paris under way

Jakub Krupa

You can follow the latest in our live stream at the top and below.

I will bring you all the latest news lines here.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke about the threat of US tariffs during last night’s televised debate with his main rival Friedrich Merz ahead of the federal election on 23 February.

He said the EU was “prepared” to respond and “ready to act within one hour,” but insisted that any reaction needs to be at the EU level, noting Germany’s particular vulnerability to any US tariffs.

This is what he said in full:

We’re prepared, obviously, with all diplomatic caution, but we’re ready to act within one hour as the European Union.

It’s important to say that our trade policy is an EU competence, and it’s one of the reasons why we should insist that we stick to these common rules with the EU.

If the US have tariff policy, then there’s going to be one export nation that is very much going to suffer from that, and that is Germany. This is why we have to ensure that there is solidarity with tariff policy,

Looking at other EU responses, French president Emmanuel Macron also hit at Trump’s plans to impose tariffs against the EU.

Speaking in English to CNN, he said:

Is the European Union your first problem? No, I don’t think so. Your first problem is China, so you should focus on the first problem.

Europe is an ally for you. If you want Europe to be engaged on more investment, security, defence, if you want Europe to develop, which I think is in the interest of the US, you should not hurt European economies by threatening them with tariffs.

France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot went further this morning, saying directly that the EU would counter in kind and retaliate against any tariffs imposed by the US.

“There is no hesitation when it comes to defending our interests,” he said in an interview with TF1.

Responding to Trump’s comments on aluminium and steel tariffs overnight, the EU has just said that it had not received any official notification yet, but insisted there was no justification of any such move and it would be ready to respond if needed.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said:

We will not respond to broad announcements without details or written clarification. The EU sees no justification for the imposition of tariffs on its exports. We will react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified measures.

But they added:

In general: The imposition of tariffs would be unlawful and economically counterproductive, especially given the deeply integrated production chains the EU and U.S. established through transatlantic trade and investment.

Tariffs are essentially taxes. By imposing tariffs, the U.S. would be taxing its own citizens, raising costs for business, and fuelling inflation. Moreover, tariffs heighten economic uncertainty and disrupt the efficiency and integration of global markets.

Morning opening: AI, trade, and Ukraine set to dominate the week

Jakub Krupa

Imagine you are a European leader. On your to-do list for this week, you have (at least) three issues:

• How to navigate an almost existential discussion on how to deal with the rapid expansion of AI

• How to avoid the looming threat of global trade wars

• How to influence US plans to hold secret negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine

No pressure.

First, we are in Paris for Emmanuel Macron’s AI Action Summit.

What is at stake during the two-day meeting, starting today, is probably best captured on the front page of the French daily Libération this morning, with Emmanuel Macron desperately trying to catch up with the US and Chinese robots.

Speaking to the CNN last week, Macron said that Europe was “not in the race today,” and warned it was seriously “lagging behind” competitors.

So the Paris summit will be an opportunity for him to show France and Europe are serious about joining the AI race, and to have discussions with investors and global leaders about what’s next for the rapidly emerging technology. With the EU’s AI Act now in implementation, lots of questions still remain about the bloc’s approach to the technology’s development and regulation.

In total, Macron and his co-host Indian prime minister Narenda Modi will welcome about 80 leaders, including US vice-president JD Vance (in his first trip to Europe since inauguration), Chinese vice premier Zhang Gouqing as well as top execs such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai.

On Sunday, Macron announced €109bn of investment in AI in France in the coming years, expected to come from the United Arab Emirates, US and Canadian investment funds, and French companies. He said it was “the equivalent for France of what the US has announced with Stargate,” the $500-billion US scheme led by ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Only last week, France’s Mistral AI also launched its AI assistant Le Chat – you can see the nod to its French roots there – which now tops the list of most popular apps in Europe.

Over the weekend, the president was keen to present himself as a fan of AI posting a video in which he appears, through the magic of deepfake technologies as a singer, an actor, a rapper and others. “It’s pretty well done, it made me laugh,” he said.

But it’s definitely not all laughs in Europe.

Last night, US president Donald Trump once again raised the prospect of imposing tariffs on all aluminium and steel imports, which would also hit the European Union. EU leaders will be frantically making calls this morning to figure out what it all means for them and how, and when, to respond.

Trump’s No.2 JD Vance will be in Europe most of this week, first attending the Paris summit, and later taking part in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, meaning there will be some scope for informal discussions behind the scenes.

But with their focus on putting America First, how much will Trump and Vance be willing to cut deals with the EU as they focus on their main aims of radically reshaping global trade and trying to bring to an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

It’s going to be lively. Buckle up.

It’s Monday, 10 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.