Emmanuel Macron yesterday warned his EU partners that “Europe can die” if quick decisions are not taken to guarantee its sovereignty in multiple areas, from defense to high-tech industry, and to preserve its threatened model of liberal democracy. and social protection. The French president gave a long speech, almost two hours, at the Sorbonne University, on the same stage where he spoke seven years ago, in 2017, a few months after conquering the Elysée.
“Our Europe is mortal,” said Macron. Europe can die. She depends on us.” It was the central phrase of his speech, followed by about five hundred national and foreign guests. He repeated this reflection several times, with the rhetorical skill and almost theatrical skills that characterize the French head of state on this type of solemn occasions.
According to Macron, events in recent years such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have changed the rules of the game and it is urgent to adapt to survive. In his opinion, the European Union reacted well to these crises, with measures such as joint debt, until then a taboo, to boost the post-Covid economic recovery, or the common purchase of vaccines, but much more must be done.
The speech was highly criticized by the opposition and by some of the press for considering that it was an electoral maneuver by the president, who would have thrown himself into the campaign for the European elections on June 9 to try to reverse a trend. very unfavorable. According to polls, the Macronist list, headed by MEP Valérie Hayer, is between 12 and 15 percentage points behind the National Regroupment (RN, far-right). Elysée sources denied this political intention, although the explanations have not been very convincing.
The Sorbonne event was also controversial because French MEPs were invited, without taking into account that it coincided with the last plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg before the elections, with important votes. Some lamented the lack of institutional respect and arrogance.
Macron touched on a wide variety of topics, from agriculture to semiconductors, from demography to green industry. The common denominator was to warn that Europe runs a very serious risk of seeing itself “fragilized” and “relegated” in the global context if it does not defend itself together and invest massively. For the French president, the crises of recent years have shown that the EU cannot depend on Russia for its energy, on China for certain strategic industrial supplies or on the United States to ensure its military defense.
For the tenant of the Elysée, the maintenance of a highly valued social protection model and an unparalleled system of freedoms also depends on economic and defense sovereignty. The president warned of the threats and constant attacks that liberal democracies suffer.
Europe must provide itself, in the words of the French president, with the instruments to be a “power”, while maintaining “prosperity” and preserving its “humanism”. These three ideas were emphasized in his presentation. In the power section, he insisted on the urgency of improving autonomous defense, even with a common loan to invest massively in weapons, and on developing an immigration and asylum policy that truly enforces borders. Macron made it quite clear that the French nuclear deterrent capacity – the only independent one within the EU after the departure of the United Kingdom – “is an unavoidable element” of European defense and also covers the continent's partners and allies, a statement that is not always so obvious. According to the president, Europe should consider, among other things, also having its own anti-missile shield.
Regarding Ukraine, Macron reiterated his usual line of recent years, shared with the allies, and emphasized that “the main danger to European security is the war in Ukraine; "The sine qua non for our security is that Russia does not win this war of aggression." Regarding Brexit, the president admitted that it has been one of the most serious crises in the history of the EU, although with a positive consequence, a lesson, since "no one today dares to propose exits, neither from Europe nor from the euro."
Despite Macron's efforts, it is far from clear that his second Sorbonne speech will have a significant impact on the electorate. His media saturation strategy can be counterproductive among voters who are already very hostile to him, and his long and dense speeches are soon diluted in the information maelstrom.
