Macron and Europe: the French imaginative and prescient for strategic autonomy

Last week, France’s president Emmanuel Macron threw the EU bubble into turmoil by suggesting that Europe shouldn’t change into the United States’ “vassal” over Taiwan. But is all of the controversy overshadowing the chance that he could possibly be proper? 

This week, Mark Leonard welcomes two ECFR colleagues: director of the Wider Europe programme and former French diplomat, Marie Dumoulin, and head of the Paris workplace and professional in French and US overseas coverage, Célia Belin. . What explains Macron’s mind-set and is there a home context to his feedback? And what do the sturdy reactions say about how Europeans view strategic autonomy within the context of the battle in Ukraine?  

This podcast was recorded on 17 April 2023.  

Bookshelf: 

Cover picture:
France’s President Emmanuel Macron speaks throughout a media confernce at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, March 24, 2023

Image by image alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | Geert Vanden Wijngaert
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