Emmanuel Macron sticks to his position on Russia. Europe must be strong and put no limits on itself in responding to threats from Moscow, he declared during his speech at La Sorbonne this Thursday, April 25.
Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Europe, at La Sorbonne, this Thursday, April 25, also turned out to be a speech against Russia. At least on a military level. While the President of the Republic insisted on the different areas to invest in to achieve what he calls “powerful Europe”, he mentioned Russia as one of the threats hovering over the continent. “The sine qua non condition for our security is that Russia does not win the war of aggression it is waging against Ukraine,” he declared.
With these statements, Emmanuel Macron continues to toughen its tone as it has started to do in recent months. A choice that he accepts and even claims: “I fully accept having introduced strategic ambiguity”. A reference to the remarks he made on February 26 and not excluding the sending of French troops to the front of the war in Ukraine. The mere possibility of seeing the French army on the front was enough to provoke the ire of the opposition and had not aroused enthusiasm among our European neighbors, many having dissociated themselves from the presidential declarations.
“Do we have limits? No!”
Faced with these reservations, Emmanuel Macron explained that he wanted to sow doubt in the mind of the Russian enemy to dissuade him from going further in the conflict and towards Europe. He also felt that Europe should not put up any barriers. Here again, the Head of State maintained his position from the Sorbonne: “If we say that Ukraine is the condition of our security, what is at stake in Ukraine is more than the territorial sovereignty of this country but the security of Europeans , do we have limits?
“We are facing an uninhibited power. Which attacked a European country. But which is no longer in a special operation and which no longer wants to tell us what its limits are. Why should we say every morning what are all our limits, strategically?” questioned Emmanuel Macron wishing to convince the assembly of the merits of his rhetoric.
The war with Ukraine and the threat represented by Russia put back on the table, in the foreground, Emmanuel Macron was able to unfold his project so that Europe regains its military sovereignty. “When we have a neighbor who has become aggressive and who no longer explains his limits, but who has ballistic capabilities on which he has innovated a lot and nuclear weapons, whose capabilities he has demonstrated, we see clearly that we must build a strategic concept of a credible European defense”, launched the French President. An initiative that he wishes to launch in the coming months and in which “France will play its full role” as a country equipped with “a model of a complete army whose objective is to be the most effective on the continent” and nuclear weapons.
If the head of state persists and signs on the subject of Russia, the oppositions still reject his speech. Some parties accuse him of participating in the escalation of the conflict, like rebellious France which, onestimated that “this irresponsible President risks dragging us into a generalized war!”