Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
This is Macron saying “Europe must show that it’s never going to be the lapdog for the United States when we speak to the other regions of the world”. This pisses me off to no end because he had SO MANY opportunities to do just that and he never, ever took it. Gaza is a fantastic example.
Traditionally France is more on the side of the Palestinians, it’s no coincidence that there’s a “Jacques Chirac” street in Ramallah and a “Charles de Gaulle” street in Gaza… So it shouldn’t have been hard for France, in the face of an unprecedented level of suffering by the Palestinians, to at the very least publicly show some level of empathy…
Instead what Macron did is adopt an essentially entirely pro-Israel and pro-US position: ban any public show of support in favor of the Palestinians, organize several ceremonies for the 7th of October but nothing for the Palestinians, send the police after public figures – including political opponents – who supported Palestinians because that was “apology of terrorism”, etc.
In many ways, France became more American in its support of Israel than America itself! What do “other regions of the world” think when they see that, especially the Arab world, except that France has reneged on its own identity in favor of a generic “Western” position that falls in line behind the US?
Gaza isn’t the only example.
Has France taken a unique position on issues in Asia? Nope. Be it on Taiwan, the South China Sea, etc. there is literally no visible daylight between what the US and France are saying. Has France maybe taken a unique position on Russia and the Ukraine war?
Everybody knows that whilst Macron might have been hesitant in his support of Ukraine at first, he’s now become almost more American than the Americans, even advocating for direct NATO involvement in the conflict. Ukraine was a fantastic opportunity to assert Europe’s unique voice, all the more because the war has an immense impact on its own interests. It was an opportunity to catch the Americans off guard and say: “they have really put us in a deep mess with NATO’s expansion, it is high time to completely rethink the European security architecture. We cannot find ourselves in a situation where we are forced into a confrontation with our Russian neighbors for decades to come.”
But no, Macron chose instead to bear the consequences of that confrontation like a good soldier. You can even go further back in time. Macron was Minister of Economy when the US stole (yes, stole: read Frédéric Pierucci’s book “The American Trap”) Alstom, one of France’s most important companies, with a very similar playbook to what they later attempted to do with Huawei. Macron could have done like China with Huawei and defended Alstom and its executives (including Pierucci whom the US sent to prison) but no, he caved, which was immensely shameful. Did that “show that France is never going to be the lapdog for the United States”?
So it’s exceedingly hard – even impossible – to see this as anything else than pure Orwellian doublespeak: saying one thing whilst reality is the complete opposite. And the result is that it’s already over: France, and Europe, have already lost any shred of credibility. It will take a long time to regain it and it certainly won’t happen with this generation of fake “leaders”.