France’s globalist President Emmanuel Macron is making a state visit to Germany, the first such for 24 years, and kicked off his visit by warning against nations acting in their own interest.
France and Germany, both led by globalist-left governments and both facing a damaging vote in less than two weeks as the European Parliament is re-elected continent-wide, put on a united front as Macron arrived in Berlin for the first state visit in a near-quarter century. The last French leader to make a full state visit to Germany was Jacques Chirac in 2000.
The Franco-German relationship — keeping the two parties from invading each other — is the founding purpose of the European Union and defending that institution was evidently on Macron’s mind as he addressed German young people to sublimate feelings of national pride into the European Union. “Europe can die”, the French President warned again, if the right wing isn’t defeated, reports Le Figaro.
BERLIN, GERMANY – MAY 26: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the state banquet in his honour at Schloss Bellevue palace on May 26, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. Macron and French First Lady Brigitte Macron are on a three-day visit to Germany with stops in Berlin, Dresden, Moritzburg and Münster. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“We have never had as many enemies inside as outside”, Macron said, expressing his hyper-globalist assessment that nationalism damages democracy, and that there was a “fight” on to prevent this process. He continued, warning: “A form of fascination with authoritarianism is emerging in our democracy.”
Presenting his list of European victories that wouldn’t have been possible “if the nationalists had been in charge in Europe”, Macron again showed particular preoccupations by naming achievements like coronavirus vaccines, “decarbonising the economy”, and underwriting Ukraine’s national defence.
The French President also stated, remarkably, that had nationalists been running Europe in recent years there would have been “no capacity to respond to migration challenges”. The clear implication that open-borders European federalists have some sort of in-built advantage when it comes to border control over nationalists clearly speaks to Macron’s own special perception of reality.
The essential context of the speech is the European Parliament elections taking place next week, with over 700 members up for renewal. The right-wing is polled to perform particularly strongly across Europe as attitudes sour on globalism and changing attitudes sees rising levels of scepticism towards mass migration.
Among those campaigning in France against Macron’s platform is, for instance, Le Pen dynasty politician Marion Marechal, who shares a platform with veteran journalist and now politician Eric Zemmour. Marcechal has previous compared the populist-right position in France to President Trump’s America First, proclaiming “France First” and a France for the French. Such a position is abundantly out of step with the Macron worldview where “nationalisms” threatens democracy.
The greatest challenger to Macron inside France, however, is Marion’s aunt, Marine Le Pen. Macron has said he will debate with Le Pen before next week’s vote, but it is not yet clear whether that will take place.