Two sides met in Toulon for earnest talk, but the outcome was mostly talk. Merz and Macron exchanged pleasantries, about ninety minutes of work, a group photo, and a Mediterranean lunch. They produced broad papers and roadmaps on competition, trade, and digital issues, but no concrete decisions. A Digital Summit in Berlin on 18 November is meant to push coordination. Ukraine loomed large: Macron called Putin autocratic and revanchist. The meeting ran under a French government crisis around Prime Minister Bayrou’s confidence vote, yet Macron presented himself as the guarantor of the Franco-German bond and said he won’t resign before 2027.

This is the sort of theater that makes me spit. It’s a fancy buffet of buzzwords dressed up as “spirit of Toulon” and “strong personal relationship,” while the real substance fits on a shelf with the other empty promises. Roadmaps? Sure. Decisions? Not so much. They parade their digital coordination as if Berlin will suddenly become a digital savior for Europe, but the truth is they’ll stamp a dozen reports, file them away, and pretend progress happened. They’re chasing a summit in Berlin like it’s a grand turning point, not a routine bureaucratic staircase to nowhere.

Bayrou’s confidence vote crisis in France is a perfect sideshow for the tired old script: keep the camera on Macron, keep the line that he’s the bedrock of Franco-German unity, while the cabinet trembles and ministers eye the exit. It’s a genius bit of leverage theater—drama to distract from the fact that Europe’s governance is still a maze of promises with little backbone. The Pope’s blessing would be easier to fake than a binding agreement in these chats, because the reality is that the big players want more central control under the banner of coordination, not more freedom for the member states.

And let’s talk Ukraine: a convenient moral high ground to wave at the crowd while the real gears keep grinding. Putin is named autocratic and revanchist, sure, but the policy choreography remains cautious and cautious, with a promise of more support on paper and maybe a few more sanctions on the hill. It’s a script designed to reassure publics who feel the squeeze at home—more talk, less risk for those pulling the levers in Brussels and Paris. Brace yourself for another round of glossy communiqués, another photo with Mediterranean plants, another day of “we’re on the right track” spin, while the clock runs and nothing firm lands on the table. The truth is simple: unless you trust the mystic powers of a Berlin digital summit and a miracle marriage of two capitals that keep postponing hard choices, you’re watching a well-rehearsed ritual, not robust policy.