Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron made his annual speech to the diplomatic corps and outlined France’s foreign policy by referring to history. All of Macron’s quoted history in his speech is incorrect. Grossly incorrect, and I’m honestly, surprised how his speech writers couldn’t have spun the message in a fraudulently better way. He says, for example:
Nous n’avons jamais été ni alignés, ni vassalisés derrière quelque puissance que ce soit. Nous avons des partenaires, nous avons des alliés, nous avons une convergence de valeurs avec les États-Unis d’Amérique qui est forte, mais nous avons toujours gardé et j’y reviendrai, notre indépendance.
“France was never aligned nor a vassal of any power. We have partnerships, we have allies, we have a convergence of values with the United States which is strong, but we have always guarded and I will get at it later, our independence.”
If you can send me a better translation, I’d be happy to use it. What is he really saying?
Half of France was a vassal of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. During the Cold War, France was a founding member of NATO in 1948 and left in 1966 only to join back in again in 2009. Despite the fact that France was not part of NATO, it was still fully aligned with the West. The Non-Aligned Movement, which Malta under Mintoff was part of along with Yugoslavia and Libya was altogether a different political international movement. Macron literally doesn’t have any idea what he is talking about and I’m a bit surprised at how his speech writers would gloss over such a mistake.
In any case, the point of Macron’s speech is that France should act as a mediator between East and West. Macron intends to place France as a mediator between the West and powers hostile to the West such as Russia and China. The idea is hilarious and I have no idea where it is coming from. Outside the ex-French colonial countries, France by itself holds little or no influence at all and on affairs of international proportions, France is totally insignificant. Macron is the leader of the social democrats of the Southern Mediterranean, with Pedro Sanchez and Robert Abela flocking around him for political support in the corridors of the European Council. Other than that, Macron is a nobody and more of an appendage to Germany rather than a power on its own which can influence worldly affairs. France would do better if it consolidate its interests within the Western alliance instead of looking East and making a fool of itself.
Macron has Napoleonic delusions and instead of entertaining them, he should spend time repairing the stagnating French economy. His delusional speech also explains his bizarre behavior at this year’s G7 meeting in Germany when he made a public show in front of the press, embarrassing himself with Biden as he pretended to be some sort of mediator between Saudi Arabia and the US. I can just imagine what a laugh the Saudi sheikhs had off his back as they saw him spreading panic, unwittingly paying into their hands, comically and so unaware. I can just imagine how the conversation went.
“Emmanuel, ħabibi. Listen, do me a favour, tell Joe we have no more production capacity. We can not pump more, ħabibi.”
“Oh mon Dieu. C’est vrai What shall I tell Joe?”
“Full capacity. We can’t pump no more. So, sorry. Tell him, ħabibi. Tell Joe.”
“Merci beaucoup moan roi. I will tell him now, in front of everyone.”
“Yo, Salman, the fool gets it. Buy calls on Brent. We are going up again.”
Joking apart (although, I doubt if this is a joke), Macron, along with Scholz is spearheading the European divide between the Europe of rule of law and sovereignty and Europe which intends to keep doing business with Russia. The latter European alliance wants to live in a world shaped by imperial wars as we jeapordise our national security to warring states. The other Europe understands that tolerating imperialist aggression is an existential threat and trading and dealing with Russia will only empower it to wage more wars and atrocities.
In reality, there may be an obvious reason why Macron would come up with Napoleonic delusions and make a show for the cameras. Macron needs a distraction from his failure of fulfilling his promise to change France and pull it out of economic stagnation. Yet, in France, today, everything is the same as it was before he came to power: hugely growing wealth disparities, the increase of ghettoes and the poor, the lack of high-paying jobs, an over-taxed middle class and private sector with a boated government, and major industries which run on the backing of the government which backs its financing with ever more increasing debt. France is a mess, but Macron wants to be a Napoleon.
The woes of the West lie with incompetent leaders who inherited power and wealth from their parents, never worked an hour in their lives and are completely detached from reality.
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