Where is the Franco-German couple? On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, signed on January 23, 1963 by de Gaulle and Adenauer, La Croix put the question to the Secretary of State for European Affairs and the Climate in the German government, Anna Lührmann. Nobody, to my knowledge, has noted, in this interview, a sentence that is simply overwhelming and, let’s say it, prophetic. Nobody, except a particularly attentive reader, who hastened to point it out to me.
This sentence, here it is: “We have joint projects, such as the night train line between Berlin and Paris, which should see the light of day at the end of the year. You read that right: a night train will see the light of day! A train running in the middle of the night from Berlin to Paris will be bathed in light, a radiant sun illuminating all the compartments as well as the hearts of the passengers, swollen with hope and enthusiasm. The night conquered, the night overthrown, the night swept away! The eternal and nagging question of the prophet Isaiah has finally found its answer: “Watcher, where is the night? Well, said the watchman in his conductor’s cap, the night fades away, the night goes away, the night disappears, the day wins, the day triumphs, the day is here forever, thanks to the train. of night sealing the Franco-German friendship, spinning towards an immaculate dawn. Rejoice, humanity! And you, fellow human beings, dry your tears! Could, at night.