Angelique Chrisafis – The Guardian March 5, 2025
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that Russian aggression “knows no borders”, will not stop at Ukraine and is a direct threat to France and Europe which must prepare in case the US steps away from its side.
“I want to believe the US will stay by our side,” Macron said in a televised address late on Wednesday. “But we have to be ready if that isn’t the case,” he said.
Macron sought to calm what his office called voter anxiety on the Ukraine crisis, European security and the threat of a transatlantic trade war after Trump paused US support to Ukraine and also threatened to slap tariffs on goods from the EU, following on from levies imposed on China, Mexico and Canada.
Macron said to the French public in a prime-time TV speech: “I’m speaking to you tonight because of the international situation and its consequences for Europe … I know you are legitimately worried faced with the historic events that are shaking the world order.
“The war in Ukraine, which has left almost one million dead and injured, continues with the same intensity. The US, our ally, has changed its position on this war, supporting Ukraine less and allowing doubt to linger on what will come next.”
He said the increasingly “brutal” world was entering “a new era” and “it would be madness to stay a spectator in this world of danger”.
Macron said France and Europe must keep helping Ukraine “to resist until Ukraine can negotiate a peace with Russia that is solid for themselves and for all of us”. He said no path to peace could happen through “abandoning Ukraine”.
In an implicit reference to Trump’s attempts to force Ukraine into peace talks with Russia, he added: “Peace cannot be concluded at any price.”
He said: “Who can believe today that Russia would stop at Ukraine?
Macron said any European forces deployed would not fight today or at the frontline, but would be there to guarantee any peace in Ukraine once it had been signed.
He also said he would discuss with European partners extending French nuclear deterrence to other countries on the continent, but that the decision and control would always remain in the hands of the French president.
Macron said: “Europe’s future should not be decided in Washington or Moscow, and yes the threat from the east is returning. And the innocence of these 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall is over.”
He said France and Europe must also prepare for tariffs on European goods, calling that decision “incomprehensible, as much for the American economy as ours”. He said France and Europe would respond but he hoped to be able to dissuade Donald Trump.
On Thursday, a Brussels defence summit will see the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, join the 27 EU leaders in person.
European leaders are stepping up diplomatic efforts after Trump ordered a pause on all critical US military aid for Ukraine against Russia, three years into the invasion, after an explosive public confrontation in the Oval Office last week with Zelenskyy.
After his speech on Wednesday, Macron welcomed the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for a working-dinner at the Élysée Palace amid intense preparations for Thursday’s EU summit on defence and support for Ukraine.
EU leaders are contemplating the stark prospect of the US withdrawing longer-term support from Kyiv and more broadly from its European allies. The summit will discuss a massive boost in European defence spending to make up for the expected dwindling of transatlantic support under Trump. Alongside the Ukraine crisis, EU leaders will discuss a proposal by the European Commission to borrow up to €150bn to lend to member states under a rearmament plan.
Consensus on all these issues is not straightforward. Orbán is an admirer not only of Trump but also Putin, and has repeatedly broken a united EU front on Ukraine. The Hungarian leader – one of Trump’s and Moscow’s closest allies in the EU – said earlier this week that a “transatlantic rift” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had become apparent over recent days.
He told a briefing: “There is a clear strategic difference, which the US presidential election has made unbridgeable … Some want war and some want peace. This is the challenge we will have to face on Thursday.” He said he would have to face that challenge as early as Wednesday, in an apparent reference to his planned dinner with Macron.
He accused European leaders, who met in London over the weekend to support Kyiv, of having decided “that the war in Ukraine must continue”.
An Élysée official said France was “inclusive” and “speaking to everyone” and viewed Thursday’s summit as “a new moment in the consolidation of European unity”.
The official said France would press “the necessity that Ukraine is fully associated with any discussion on its future. That is obvious, but it has to be remembered, respected and fully taken into account.”
Macron, whose popularity had dropped during a domestic political crisis prompted by him calling snap elections, appears to be experiencing a slight increase in support among voters, amid Ukraine diplomacy and the first steps of the Trump administration. One poll, after Macron’s recent visit to Washington, showed an improvement in his confidence ratings among French voters.
But the push to increase French defence spending is coinciding with government struggles to reduce the budget deficit.
The ((( Guardian ))) LOL 🙂
Imagine all of those fools actually swear to protect that vile homosexual. Just goes to show the goyim will do anything for a pension. So much for the “superiority” of the “white man” and no wonder Europe is being destroyed from within.
He’s WEF as is Starmer and others. It may be the WEF is sinking.
Well…
One thing’s for sure.. a nice protracted war in Europe will thin out the diversity and the not so equitable..aye…watch them as they all scurry back to wherever…double quick like…
Of course you would then have certain swarthy highly religious groups remaining on, for shits and giggles and rape opportunities..
perhaps to gain purchase on what passes for your nation states, no doubt making bargains and bids for power, what little there is and such as it may be..
..with the hunchbacks of Euroland who’d sell their granny for an invite to the party.. and a child bride..
so it would certainly be best to page them all quick,in fact as soon as the conflagration kicks off, or even better, get an old rabbi to do it for you because they are very good at that sort of thing (if you can find one that isn’t hidden in a special tunnel somewhere)…
What a pompous little prick that posturing French Faggot is!!!
Photo on top: THAT would’ve been a great opportunity!
Where’s ‘The Jackal’ when you need him!☹
The mighty french army will be ready, with their two trucks and a jeep for the french general when he or she needs to run away from Russian missiles. Macron’s nose will soon take over that face of his, he being a mighty statesman.
Just read it all backwards to make Macron right
In the photo above it looks like the froggies have even called Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle back from “retirement” to charge and finish off what Napoleon once failed to do. Just hope that “mon General’s” costume has some steel reinforcement for the heavy junk of shiny coinage attached to his chest which of course is a symbol for bravery and french fried courage. Though it could have been more real if General Marie did not stand on a stool the size of 6 Parisienne yellow pages when being driven around to great the french multicultural masses before Mother Russia gets finally crushed. Vive la France & Micron!
And in regards to French multiculturalism – the army in the picture above is mostly white with a handful of darkies blending in – which of course mirrors la réalité française à la perfection. Nice shiny crash helmets by the way. Must be great for assaults of Russian cities in the dark!
It’s comedy central when the west(read the E.U. and militarily mediocre countries like Canada), has now gone totally into the nonsense of “Russian aggression”.