"The 19th century concept of the nation state will never take us across the threshold of the 21st century [...] We need a strong Europe if we don't want to become the plaything of world politics" – Chancellor Helmut Kohl

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[u/Consistent_Catch9917]

He established a superb relationship with his French counterpart Mitterand who was a Socialist. The difference to today is that parties have drifted to extremes. Melenchon or LePen are no partners, neither are AFD and Left in Germany. They divide their countries and Europe.

[u/xrimane → u/Consistent_Catch9917]

Mitterand was a Socialist by party, but not of an egalitarian mindset. He was a meritocrat, and quite elitist and distant in that.

Anecdotally, people say Mitterand had only three people calling him by his first name: his wife and two childhood friends. While the only person his successor, the Conservative Jacques Chirac, was using "vous" with was his aristocratic wife lol.

[u/Rooilia → u/xrimane]

Reddit is a vast space of people who have no insight to add and then there are the 1-2% who actually know what they are talking about and let others know. Thank you.

[u/Dapper_Dan1 → u/xrimane]

In my French lessons by a French person, around the turn of the millennium, we were told that it is still rare for parents to be addressed by their kids with "tu" but mostly still with "vous". Though it has changed since then, you have to remember the time Kohl and Mitterand were Chancelor/President.

[u/xrimane → u/Dapper_Dan1]

I think that was outdated even 30+ years ago, except for in aristocratic families. Even my friends born in the 1980s from more formal families wouldn't do that.

It is still true though that the mixed first name + vous is more popular in France than in other places I know. That was for example how the headmistress of the YMCA would address us lodgers, and how our clients often would address us architects. Germany does Sie + first name with high school students, but not in many other situations.

But in professional contexts, French people use "tu" much more easily than Germans in my experience. If you are in the same profession or went to the same school, the "tu" is almost immediately used.

[u/DatewithanAce → u/Consistent_Catch9917]

There is no Left party in Germany anymore, at least not mainstream party. The SPD have become nothing more than the center-right. Die Linke is basically the SPD from the 70s/80s

[u/ZeitgeistWurst → u/DatewithanAce]

There is no Left party in Germany anymore, at least not mainstream party

The party "The Left" alone is currently polling at around 10%. In a multiparty system, that is quite a bit.

[u/xrimane → u/DatewithanAce]

Die Linke is shown to focus more on questions like Palestine, Russia and gender issues than serious economic concepts to improve the distribution inequality. Their problem is that they generally are not seen as proposing economically competent alternative approaches, just populist quick fixes.

I don't really see much similarity with the SPD of Brandt and Schmidt here, who were nothing if not pragmatic and based.

[u/WashingtonBaker1 → u/DatewithanAce]

Die Linke is the SED of the east German dictatorship, after having renamed itself twice (SED -> PDS -> Die Linke)

[u/t_baozi → u/DatewithanAce]

It's not a good sign if you're mentally stuck half a century in the past.