Macron-Merkel – the post-Brexit Franco-German relationship in the European Union Gabriel Richard-Molard Popular history loves nice images. This is particularly true for the Franco-German relationship, constructed and nourished by the symbolic representations it gen­erates. Although reconciliation between France and Germany may have been fundamental for a peaceful Europe, today this important relationship is, above all, a joint political tool of power and influence used in the European political context and on the domestic scene in both States. Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel can no more escape this rule than their predecessors could. They un­derstand and use the Franco-German relationship as a political tool to serve their own ends in a period trou­bled by the increase in populism, the institutional and economic chaos caused by Brexit, and the wasteland left behind by the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, the con­stant adaptations of the particular relationship and its use in this context of crisis merit the attention they will be given in this article. The Franco-German relationship has been destabi­lised by Brexit. The departure of the British and the emp­ty chair they leave in the European institutions implies an adjustment of the balance of power within these in­stitutions and the different circles of interests the British belonged to, such as the member States generally unfa­vourable to political integration or those inclined to limit any fiscal convergence initiative, like Ireland, Estonia or the Netherlands. Britain’s departure also implies the need for the two States to learn to work alone, without the possibility of finding an objective ally within the European Union suf­ficiently strong to sustain them. In this context, which we will return to in greater detail, Spain, like Poland and Italy, appears to be one of the member States with which relations could deepen in forthcoming years. To this must, of course, be added the context of the pandemic and, above all, the handling of the result­ing economic crisis. Once again, although the Franco­German partnership may have played a decisive role in implementing policy, against the wishes of the so-called frugal States(but also, and above all, the Union’s tax havens), it has been buffeted around by its own contra­15