Business | Peering across the Rhine

What German business makes of France’s leftward turn

Deutschland AG and France SA are closer than ever

The Rhine river at Strasbourg's harbour, eastern France.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Berlin

GERMAN POLITICS is followed closely in Paris. So is French politics in Berlin. Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said on July 8th that he was “relieved” that the far right failed to win the French parliamentary election on July 7th. What Mr Scholz did not mention were worries in German companies about what the New Popular Front (NFP), the leftist alliance which won the most votes and includes a hard-left element led by a former Trotskyist, have in store for business.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Peering across the Rhine”

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