FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS – Almost seven years after the first solemn speech, the French president Emmanuel Macron has returned to the Sorbonne to «talk about our future, and therefore about Europe». «My message today is simple. Paul Valéry said, at the end of the First World War, that we now knew that our civilizations were mortal. Today we must be clear about the fact that our Europe is mortal, it can die».
«This depends only on our choices but these choices must be made now», because according to Macron “the immense risk” over the next decade is that Europe becomes more fragile, “surrounded” by the great regional powers, its values of liberal democracy increasingly “criticized and contested”.
Macron asked for a better control of European borders and the creation of a “European defense initiative” that is “credible” in the face of Russian missiles, including a European missile shield.
The French president tried to explain his concept of «powerful Europe»: «it is a Europe that commands respect and guarantees its own security; it is a Europe that accepts having borders and protects them; it is a Europe that sees the risks to which it is exposed and is preparing to face them”, he said, asking for a “way out” from a form of “strategic minority”.
Our Europe could die, Macron repeated, «due to a twist of history. In a certain sense, European ideas have won the Gramscian battle: all European nationalisms no longer dare to say that they will leave the euro and Europe. But they have accustomed us all to a discourse which is that of Yes but, that is, I will pocket everything that Europe has done, but I will do it by not respecting the rules, essentially ignoring the founding values of Europe”, denounced Emmanuel Macron. «They no longer propose to leave the building or demolish it, they only propose to no longer have co-ownership rules, to no longer invest, to no longer pay rent. The risk is that everyone else will become shy. The answer, however, lies not in shyness, but in audacity».
The French president insisted on the need to make common defense one of the pillars of this new powerful Europemore assertive and united internally, especially at a time when it is necessary to show cohesion in the face of the aggressiveness of Russia.
“When we have a neighbor who has become aggressive, who has ballistic capabilities on which it has innovated a lot in recent years, which it has nuclear weapons and has demonstrated his abilities, it is clear that we must build this strategic concept of a credible European defense for ourselves. In the coming months, I will invite our partners to build this European defense initiative. There nuclear deterrence it is at the heart of France’s defense strategy. It is therefore an essential element for the defense of the European continent. It is thanks to this credible defense that we will be able to build the security guarantees that all our partners in Europe expect and which will also serve to build the common security framework, a guarantee of security for all.”
Macron then returns to suggest that the French nuclear arsenal could be considered as a tool to ensure everyone’s safety the partners of the European Union, as part of a common defence. “It’s about creating true strategic intimacy between European armies.”
The French president then proposed the “creation of a European military academy to train Europe’s future military and civilian leaders in security and defense matters”, and of a “rapid reaction force to be able to rapidly deploy up to 5,000 troops in hostile environments by 2025, in particular to come to the aid of our citizens.”
