Macron warns Europe ‘can die’ in alarmist speech on protectionism, geopolitical threats

PARIS  — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe faces possible demise if it does not take bold action to tackle U.S. and Chinese protectionism, amid serious geopolitical threats from authoritarian regimes.

In a bleak and solemn speech delivered at the Sorbonne University in Paris that frequently returned to the theme of a fast-changing global order, Macron evoked the death of Europe as a real possibility.

The Continent under-invests in innovation, fails to protect its industries and boost its military and defenses, he said.

“Europe is mortal, it can die. It only depends on our choices,” he said in a highly-anticipated speech that echoed a landmark discourse he gave there months into his first term in 2017. “And these choices have to be made now.”

“In the next decade, the risk is immense that we will be weakened, even relegated,” he told an audience of officials, journalists and politicians, pointing to changing geopolitics and emboldened authoritarian regimes. 

“The era of basing our production in China, of delegating our defense to the U.S., and of getting our energy from Russia is over. The rules of the game have changed,” he said. The French president accused both the U.S. and China of failing to respect global trade rules in massively subsidizing their economies.

“However strong our alliance with America is, we are not a priority for them” he said. “They have two priorities: themselves — fair enough — and China.”

Echoing past calls in favor of seeking a third way between the U.S. and China, the French president said Europe must show that “it’s never going to be a vassal for the United States” when it “speaks to other regions of the world.”

Europe, he said, had made big strides in its unity and autonomy in recent years in the face of the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but “the wake-up is too slow.” The French president called for a much more aggressive trade policy and far greater public investments in a range of critical areas.

But the French president was less specific on the the crucial question of how Europe would be able to fund its transition toward becoming what he called “a European powerhouse.” He reiterated his support for the acquisition of new joint debt, similar to what the EU had during the pandemic, and floated boosting the EU’s own resources with revenues from the EU carbon tax or a tax on financial transactions.

Macron’s proposals

The French president made a series of new proposals in the areas of defense, economy and trade that he said could put Europe back on the right track.

Macron said the EU should aim to become a “world leader” by 2030, with “dedicated financing strategies” in five strategic areas: artificial intelligence, quantum information, space, biotechnologies and new energies.

Macron also pleaded in favor of imposing “a European preference” in the purchase of military equipment. | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images

Macron called for “a growth objective, or even an objective of decarbonisation” to be added to the missions of the European Central Bank. “We can’t have a monetary policy whose only objective is one of inflation [control],” he said.

On Thursday, Macron also called for a “revision” of Europe’s trade policy, to “defend our interests.”

“It can’t work if we are the only ones in the world to respect trade rules that were written 15 years ago, when the Chinese, the Americans, no longer respect them in subsidizing critical areas,” he said, adding that Europe must systematically resort to “instruments of loyal competition.”

To respond to Europe’s massive new needs in terms of defense, the French president invited Europeans to build “a European defense initiative” which “might include an anti-missile European shield,” a ongoing bone of contention between France and Germany.

Macron also pleaded in favor of imposing “a European preference” in the purchase of military equipment, arguing that too much EU money was being spent on non-European manufacturers.

Not the same man

In speaking at the Sorbonne University, the French president was trying to recapture the spirit of his first speech on Europe as a freshly elected president in 2017, which had initially received a cool welcome in several European capitals, but was later largely vindicated by geopolitical events.

France’s push for greater European strategic autonomy and sovereignty has now been echoed by the European Commission but also by other EU countries.

Macron spoke for 90 minutes on Thursday, in a half-empty amphitheater. His conclusion that he remained “optimistic” for Europe, could not however distract from the fact that a much-weakened French president was addressing France and his European partners.

Macron in 2024 cuts a far different figure than the one who spoke in 2017. The French president has since lost an absolute majority in parliament and has struggled to pass legislation at home. The country’s reputation abroad has been harmed by headline-making protests against his flagship pensions reform and recent fiscal woes, including higher than expected deficit figures.

Macron’s speech was also meant to jumpstart the flagging election campaign of his Renaissance party, led by Valerie Hayer, that is trailing the far-right by over 10 points. The French president did not mention the campaign but took aim at “nationalists” that no longer argue in favor of leaving the EU but simply of disrupting it from the inside.

In the face of rising populism, “the risk is that everybody is becoming more timid” for fear of feeding more nationalism. “But the response is not timidity, but audacity.”

 Toward the end of the speech, the French president turned philosophical about the future of the Continent. “We can even ask ourselves, what is a nation? What does Europe want to become?” he said.

“This is a decisive moment, a turning point. Our Europe can die.”