“Mortal” Europe must strengthen its defense, French President Emmanuel Macron said a while ago in his keynote speech, in an attempt to sound the alarm bells for France and the old continent.
French President Emmanuel Macron called today, Thursday, for Europe to wake up and realize that it is not adequately equipped against global threats, such as Russian aggression, which pose an existential challenge to the continent.
In a major foreign policy speech, Macron called on Europe to adopt a “credible” defense strategy that would be less dependent on the US, France24 reports.
Macron returned to some of the themes of a speech he delivered in September 2017 months after taking office at the same venue – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years later has been overturned by Brexit, the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notes the French medium.
“Our Europe today is mortal and can die”
Europe must meet the challenges of a changed world and upgrade its defences, Macron said, warning that the EU is ill-equipped to deal with global threats such as Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Our Europe today is mortal and can die,” Macron said. “He can die and it only depends on our choices,” he noted. “We have to build this strategic idea of a credible European defense for ourselves.”
He described Russia’s behavior after its invasion of Ukraine as “unfettered” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “boundaries” lay.
Macron also sounded the alarm over what he described as a lack of respect for global trade rules by Russia and China, calling on the European Union to review its trade policy.
Europe must never become a “vassal” of the USA
Macron defended the concept of European sovereignty, calling for autonomy in defense and the economy.
“How can we build our sovereignty, our autonomy, if we do not take responsibility for developing our own European defense industry?” he wondered.
Europe “must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all other regions of the world,” he said.
The French president said he would ask his European partners for proposals in the coming months and added that Europe also needs its own defense and cyber security capability.
Macron said that European suppliers should be preferred in the purchase of military equipment and supported the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.
He also called for an “overhaul” of EU trade policy to protect European interests, accusing both China and the US of no longer respecting global trade rules.
“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world who respect the rules of trade – as they were laid out 15 years ago – if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidizing critical sectors.”
He worries about the rise of the far right
The far-right is ahead in French opinion polls ahead of the European elections. Macron’s speech comes as his party faces embarrassment in June’s European elections, trailing far behind the far-right in opinion polls and even at risk of finishing third behind the Socialists, even as the EU draws up its new strategy of the agenda for the period 2024-2029.
Polls ahead of France’s June 9 European elections show support for Macron’s centrist coalition hovering just below Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Alarm (RN) at around 30%, while the Socialists threaten Macron’s party and for second place.
“It would be a real earthquake if the president’s majority came third” in the European elections, said political scientist Bruno Cautrès, a researcher at France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
The head of the ruling party’s list for the election, the little-known Valérie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of high-profile figures leading rival lists such as Jordan Bardella, 28, for the far right and Raphael Glucksmann for the left.
The popularity of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, 35, whose appointment in January was seen as a move to counter Bardella, has meanwhile declined.
The domestic stakes are high: Le Pen’s party has said it will call for the dissolution of parliament if Macron’s party and its allies suffer a crushing defeat.
Meanwhile, the European elections also come with Le Pen feeling her best chance ever to win the French presidency in the 2027 French elections, when Macron will not be able to run again, France24 points out.
