Seven years after his speech at the Sorbonne on Europe, Emmanuel Macron is submitting to the exercise again, just a few weeks before the European elections.
11:36 – “Europe can die”
“Europe is mortal, it can die,” declared Emmanuel Macron, referring to the aspect of security and the global context. “It is today that the question of peace on our continent is being played out.” “Europe is in a situation of encirclement”, referring in particular to Russia and Iran. “The risk is immense of being weakened, or even relegated,” assures the president.
11:32 – Emmanuel Macron highlights the agreement on immigration
“There is no sovereignty if there are no borders,” says the president, highlighting the establishment of the agreement on asylum and immigration. This agreement was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2024 for “border control”.
11:27 – Emmanuel Macron indirectly targets the RN
“No one dares to propose exits from Europe and the Euro anymore,” said the president. This is a direct reference to the National Rally which has changed its position on the subject.
11:26 – Emmanuel Macron discusses European successes
If the president conceded that “we have not succeeded in everything”, he mentions “successes in particular in terms of sovereignty and unity”. He then cites “some historic steps” such as “financial unity to emerge from the pandemic”, “strategic unity on health” particularly concerning the production of vaccines, defense in reference to the war in Ukraine. He assures that faced with this situation, Europe has been able to defend a “real strategy of autonomy” vis-à-vis Russia.
11:21 – Emmanuel Macron reveals the objective of his speech
The president justifies his return to the Sorbonne to “renew the thread of our accomplishments and talk about our future”. It will therefore be both an assessment and a vision towards the future.
11:16 – Emmanuel Macron starts 15 minutes late
Gabriel Attal also arrived on site and just then Emmanuel Macron who began to speak at 11:16 a.m.
11:12 – Ministers are present
Gérald Darmanin, Nicole Belloubet, Rachida Dati, Christophe Béchu, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Sébastien Lecornu were seen in the large amphitheater of the Sorbonne waiting for Emmanuel Macron’s speech, according to Le Parisien.
11:03 – Several main axes of the speech revealed
According to Le Parisien, Emmanuel Macron’s speech will be structured around the following main axes: “defense and security, economic, commercial, industrial, ecological issues, European values, identity, democracy”.
11:00 – Emmanuel Macron, a last double-edged resort for the majority
Emmanuel Macron has already interfered twice in the campaign of his head of the European list, Valérie Hayer, last week: once in the European Parliament and the other by inviting himself to the campaign HQ. And he promised to help his side at key moments. Would we witness one of these moments? This speech seems to be an opportunity for the majority leader to enter the arena to try to redress the situation as his camp struggles to assert itself in the poll results. “The level of concern is rising very sharply, the alert level has been reached. The president must want to regain control as in 2019…” analyzes a Renaissance MP in 20Minutes. Some elected representatives of the majority actually see the help of the President of the Republic as a last resort and hope to see the effects of his entry into the campaign. Others, on the contrary, fear that his intervention will be double-edged. If in 2017, it had allowed the majority “to save the furniture” -22.42% against 23.34% for the RN -, in 2024 the effects are likely to be “much less strong” according to the same MP: “It “There is no longer this hype that followed 2017. There is still a very strong rejection of the president among the electorate.”
10:56 – Deffontaines sees the speech as a “meeting” for Valérie Hayer
Léon Deffontaines, head of the Communist list, believes that this speech is indeed a “meeting” for the head of the majority list Valérie Hayer. He even assures that this should be “deducted” from the candidate’s speaking time.
10:49 – For François Bayrou, Europe is more threatened than ever
François Bayrou defended Emmanuel Macron, assuring on RMC that it was not “strictly speaking a campaign speech” but rather “an address to the nation, a challenge to the country”. He calls for “awareness of the seriousness of the situation” with “a risk of destabilization” never before known. “Europe is also at risk of being subjected to the very great powers (…) Europe is in a situation of being besieged,” he assures. He also mentions the Russian threat: “Putin has triggered the entry into a new cycle which is the law of the strongest”.
10:42 – Jordan Bardella denounces “a campaign launch”
Jordan Bardella, head of the RN list, estimated on France 2 that this speech was a real campaign launch for the European elections just six weeks before the vote. He also announced that he would present his program immediately, this afternoon.
10:31 – Emmanuel Macron speaks at 11 a.m.
Welcome to this live broadcast which will follow Emmanuel Macron’s speech at the Sorbonne. The president made the appointment seven years after his first speech on Europe at the Parisian university in 2017. He wants to highlight the progress of recent years as well as future projects.
Emmanuel Macron speaks in front of the ambassadors of the 26 other EU member states and the delegation of the European Commission in France but also in front of business leaders, students and researchers. If he had invited French MEPs, his speech falls in the middle of a plenary session of the European Parliament, the last before the votes on June 9. Many will therefore be absent subscribers. The next day, the president will go to Strasbourg to meet with students for a new three-year contract which will strengthen the European stature of the Alsatian city.
Much criticized for making such a speech a month and a half before the European elections, the Elysée defended itself explaining that it is not a campaign speech: “we are in an institutional moment of a leader of State which does not simply engage the word of its political sensibility, but the word of a country”.