'Let us be strong': Macron embraces new int'l order, asserting 'future of France is with Europe'

1 year ago

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00:00You're watching France 24 and you've just been listening to the French president, Emmanuel

00:03Macron, as he gave that address to French ambassadors here in Paris, a very long address

00:09that lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.

00:10I was listening to that with Bertrand Besancenot, who is a former French ambassador.

00:15Bertrand, welcome.

00:16Thank you for being here with us on France 24.

00:18I'm assuming you've been to these kind of addresses before in your past career as an

00:22ambassador.

00:23What stood out for you the most and what President Macron had to say?

00:25Because there was a lot.

00:26There's a lot to unpack.

00:27You know, as usual, the president made a very brilliant presentation, very exhaustive.

00:33This is why it is so long.

00:36But he had a very clear message, which is to say there is a sense in our public opinion,

00:41but even elsewhere, of what he called defeatism, saying that, I would say, skepticism about

00:49the new international order, the situation in our country, economic or politically and

00:54other things.

00:55So he wants to say there is a kind of laisser-aller, giving the floor to what he called la pensée

01:04réactionnaire, that means the conservative thinking.

01:09And for that, his clear message is to say there is no fatality.

01:13We have to act.

01:15We have to be very active.

01:18And for this, France has different assets.

01:23He, of course, recalled our defense capacity, the Francophonie and other things, which is

01:32to say we have our own assets and we have to play them.

01:36Second element, Europe is seen sometimes as not being so effective.

01:43And he says, but the future of our country is with Europe.

01:48We have in the new international order to give a new impetus to the European construction

01:55because it is the best way to defend our own interests.

01:58And this is a very clear message.

02:02He said something about the next coming of President Trump as the new president, saying,

02:09I know that some people say, well, he will change everything, it won't be in our interest

02:14and so on.

02:15And his answer, President Macron's answer is to say, no, we have already worked with

02:21him and he will listen to us if we are strong.

02:26So this is the message I have to give.

02:29Let us be strong as French, as European.

02:33He says something interesting.

02:35And I think this is the most innovative part of his presentation, a very, very clear and

02:44strong message against, if I may say, the Russian threat.

02:49I must say, on other points, there is no big announcement.

02:54But on the Russian threat, he has been extremely clear and saying that it is our duty to defend

03:02Ukraine because it is not only defending Ukraine, it is defending our own values, our own interests.

03:09And on this, I must say, he has been particularly clear.

03:13And this is certainly the main message that I take.

03:17Right.

03:18Just to interject there, he did say the U.S. must convince Russia to come to the table

03:22with Ukraine, but he also said Ukraine must be realistic over territorial issues.

03:27I mean, it sounds like he's just demanding compromise.

03:29Well, he thinks that at the end of the day, and he said that there will be no immediate

03:35solution, clearly.

03:38But he said at the end of the day, Ukraine have to compromise and Russia will have to

03:44compromise as well, which means apparently in his mind that you might have some territorial

03:53concession.

03:54I don't know if he's thinking about Crimea, but maybe it is what he has in mind.

04:02I take another point.

04:04It was interesting also, this is new to say, we are too much frileux, I don't know, too

04:10much nervous, scared, scared in Africa.

04:15Africa is a continent which is dynamic, where we have interest.

04:21We have to renew our approach of Africa, but we have to be less frileux with Africa.

04:29Yeah, it was interesting, too.

04:31He had quite strong words for Africa, saying that he basically didn't get a thank you after

04:36the French soldiers had been there for so many years.

04:38That was quite surprising.

04:39I know, but I think he's right to recall, because sometimes you can see that he's fed

04:45up because many of our soldiers lost their life there.

04:50And of course, it was in support of the government against the terrorist threat.

04:56And he's convinced, as many are, that without this intervention, we would have a very different

05:03situation with the Daesh in Africa.

05:08So this is why he wants to say we didn't get a thank, and I regret it.

05:14I think it is a message to the African as well.

05:17We want to renovate, but don't criticize us as we didn't do anything there.

05:24Of course, this coming after many African leaders asked French soldiers to leave.

05:28Yes, exactly.

05:30And the last point is a very strong call in favor of the democratic values and universalism.

05:38Clearly, he thinks that too many people think that now we had dreams.

05:46Now clearly the conservative government thinks that they are more efficient.

05:55And many people in our countries, which are skeptical about the situation, say, let us

06:01see what it is.

06:02Well, it is, of course, a strong message also to say, no, the democratic government, our

06:08values are the best and are the most effective.

06:12We could see that during the Covid crisis.

06:16And we have to keep, we have to defend, we have to defend multilateralism.

06:21And I think this was very clear.

06:24We know that in his mind, Europe and democracy and universalism are the main priorities that

06:32has to be defended.

06:33Just a quick word before you go on climate, which was one of his final points.

06:37I mean, basically saying we haven't been strong enough.

06:40Yes.

06:41Well, this is I'm not sure there is something new.

06:44It is clear that we have been active on this fight and he wanted to recall because many

06:48people say, oh, well, let us go with more oil, more.

06:54We are hearing criticism coming from the South on that.

06:58So let us be less enthusiastic about the, about the, I don't know how you call that,

07:08but the climate change and all that.

07:13So he thinks that and even for our own interest, having less carbon is better for our economy

07:19as well.

07:20Thank you so much, Bertrand Besancenot for coming in and watching that speech with us

07:23and for giving us your analysis.

07:24You're a former ambassador.

07:25Thank you so much.

07:26Thank you very much.

07:27My pleasure.

'Let us be strong': Macron embraces new int'l order, asserting 'future of France is with Europe'

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