Macron visits Spain: what are the objectives of his meeting with the king and Sánchez?

MadridEmmanuel Macron is one of the leaders with the most weight within the European Union, but as the Americans would say, a true lame duck –lame duck– who will no longer run in the French presidential elections of April 18, 2027, and who faces a far-right led by Marine Le Pen that is leading in the polls. Pedro Sánchez is not a lame duck because he will run again in the elections, but he is also at the end of his term and with polls that give victory to the PP and Vox. In this context of mutual weakness, Emmanuel Macron will be in Spain this Tuesday and Wednesday on his final visit as President of the French Republic and with the idea of serving as a culmination of a progressive rapprochement between the two countries. The alliance between Macron and Sánchez has been sealed in many areas: from the historic signing of the Treaty of Friendship between France and Spain –still to be ratified in the Senate due to the opposition of the PP– to a common front on issues of the European agenda. Lately, to achieve a regulation of social networks and artificial intelligence.

Macron's visit this week is more important in diplomatic terms than previous ones. The last one of this dimension was in 2009 with Nicolas Sarkozy, since it is a State visit. Macron will be received initially on Tuesday by King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace of Madrid, with full honors, while subsequently the French president will participate in a dialogue with students from the Complutense University of Madrid about democracy and social networks. The more economic and political content will be on Wednesday: it is planned that they will sign a memorandum of commercial understanding that the Spanish monarch himself, Felipe VI, will preside over; and later he will have lunch with the Spanish Prime Minister at Moncloa. In the afternoon they will offer a joint press conference.

What is Macron's goal, then, in this visit? French sources indicate that the primary objective is to reaffirm the priority bilateral relationship that France wants to maintain with Spain, just as it maintains with other key partners in the European club such as Germany and Italy. "The Treaty of Friendship with France puts us on par with these states," point out PSOE sources linked to Foreign Affairs to highlight the importance of the treaty signed in Barcelona in 2023. In this sense, France views favorably that the Constitutional Court, following the challenge by the Senate, has endorsed the agreement, considering it legal for a French minister, in certain matters, to participate in the council of ministers, and vice versa.

The joint European agenda that Spain and France have will have special relevance during the visit: they intend, progressively, to make fifteen joint declarations ranging from the digital sector to energy, the fight against disinformation, the common agricultural and fisheries policy, or in matters of the fight against drug trafficking. Both countries have pledged to ban the use of social media for minors and are part of the group of relevant countries within the EU that lobbies in this regard. Furthermore, it is also planned to address international challenges, such as the effects of the war in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.

The alliance that Sánchez and Macron have forged, then, is deep. It is no coincidence that France was one of the few European countries that, following the massive entry of migrants on July 30 in Ceuta, remained on the sidelines of the criticism of Spain. It did not sign the letter from 22 states led by Italy and Denmark in which they censored the migration policy, especially the regularization, of the Spanish government. French sources remark that they have expressed "solidarity" with Spain from the very first moment and that Macron will also do so during his visit.

Primary export market

Beyond political relations, the signing of the memorandum of understanding on trade is a sign of the importance of the economic link between the two countries. France is the primary export market for Spain (notably for automobiles and agri-food and chemical products) and the third-largest supplier; and Spain is one of the top five trading partners for France. The trade volume, therefore, of sales and purchases is high. Trade exchanges exceeded 94 billion euros in 2025, while bilateral investments also reached record levels. In 2024 (the year with the latest available data), the stock of Spanish investment in France exceeded 33.5 billion euros, while French investment in the State was 71 billion.

However, in economic terms, the relationship between France and Spain has recently been marked by controversies surrounding railway connections, but also energy ones. Regarding energy, it must be taken into account from the outset that France has made a firm commitment to nuclear power and this shapes all its decisions, especially those related to the transmission of energy from Spain to Europe.

The two countries share the shareholding of H2Med or BarMar, the maritime hydrogen pipeline that is to connect Barcelona with Marseille to boost the export of hydrogen to Europe (the project has been included in the final list of projects of common interest that are eligible to receive European funding). In fact, a high-level meeting was scheduled for this month of September together with Portugal and the Commission to advance the project.

This common front, however, was not seen with MidCat, the gas pipeline that connected Catalonia with the neighboring country. Although different Spanish governments tried to carry out the project, France's blockade due to the complexity of building it beyond the Pyrenees, where there was strong local opposition, caused it to derail. In Catalonia, too, a part of society, especially the affected populations, opposed it.

At the same time, Spain has for some time been seeking to strengthen electrical interconnection with the country, especially from the Basque Country, to reach the minimum levels that the EU has demanded.

Railway tensions

In railway terms, the great struggle (stalled for now) is the deployment of Renfe in France. Catalonia has seen the AVE that is supposed to connect Barcelona and Paris pass by (for now). The railway project that was supposed to connect the Catalan capital with the French one has been shelved after Renfe decided to renounce it as a result of the obstacles from the Gallic country that have ended up being a burden for its completion, initially scheduled for 2024. Last year, the Barcelona-Toulouse connection was also suspended.

The Spanish train operator has denounced bureaucratic obstacles, as has the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, as well as a trade war by the French public company SNCF, its competitor. In any case, Renfe pointed out a few months ago that "it is not a definitive resignation; the project will be resumed when the technical and operational conditions allow it". All this will hover over Macron's state visit to Madrid.