10mo ago

Europe will lose all credibility if Russia wins in Ukraine, warns French president Macron

www.telegraph.co.uk Europe will lose all credibility if Russia wins in Ukraine, warns Macron

French president invokes Winston Churchill’s call to maintain the ‘sinews of peace’ in a prime-time interview on his stance on the conflict

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10013170

The war in Ukraine is “existential for our Europe and for France”, Mr Macron said in the interview on France 2 and TF1.

“Do you think that the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Estonians, the Romanians and the Bulgarians could remain at peace for a second [in the event of a Russian victory in Ukraine]?” he asked. “If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility would be reduced to zero.”

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Are there elections coming in France?
We are hearing big words from Macron over and over in the last few weeks to support Ukraine - yet France is far behind when in comes to supporting Ukraine financially or with military equipment. And please don't bring that Reddit meme 'France is doing everything secretly and nobody knows about it'. Democratic financing in billions of Euros is public and not a high toilet paper bill like in Hollywood movies from the 80s. There is of course a lot of proportionate support by France within the EU-assistance, as France is a big economy and paying into the EU budget. It's a similar situation with Italy, as they are another big economy within the EU. Both EU 'power houses' are far behind when it comes to direct support for Ukraine.
Macron has been telling us just last week, that the local EU arms industry needs more orders to enable low and competitive prices. He also told us support for Ukraine should only receive subsidies for EU-made products. And last week we saw statistics that the arm industry/exports from the USA and France profited the most from the Russian invasion in Ukraine, as everyone is getting their military up to date and ordering a lot. So everything plays in his hands and France is reaping in big profits and getting support for its huge arms industry. Yet, the country is far behind in supporting Ukraine and Macron keeps calling other countries to support Ukraine more - or here that 'Europe will lose all credibility'.
What is going on here? Elections?
- You could've googled that they will be in 2027 instead of writing all that :|
  Current government is just stingy. They pushed the pension reform remember? Far right (which is pro-russian) has 30+% of the voters, they don't have the balls to take the fallout once they pay for a news-worthy weapon package after pushing for cost-cuttings in every department
  
  Or I did just web search for 2024 and there are indeed 'European Parliament election in France' as a result.
  But you probably understood very well what was saying and why I was writing it. Do you have an explanation for his behaviour?
  
  Are you under the impression that Macron is running for the European Parliament?
  
  His party sure is
  
  There's always elections going on in France
  
  Explanation yes I wrote one
  But as you can tell I don't like him very much either
- European elections are ongoing, and that's definitely a move to tell to pro-European to not vote for "certain parties".
  You're absolutely right that if we look at the material given, for once Germany is leading the "European defence". And that realistically, moving "troops" to Ukraine will impact other front where french troops are fighting. So I am not sure which part of it is just word and whether it'll change much the big picture. That said, I can see how even non combat soldier could be a drastic change. If you send military mechanics with the tanks you let Ukraine having more combat troops and avoid long retraining of support staff.
  
  No-one cares about the European elections, the Parliament doesn't even have the power to propose new laws.
  
  Unfortunately you're not wrong that many people don't care 'bout the European election, on the other hand it means that there is a big intersection between the people who care about the European election and the ones who want to see more support for Urkaine, and for a political party it's still an election with MEP and assistant positions to get, this is crucial to keep the party alive and prepare the post-Macron era.
  However, even though the power balance in the EU is too much in favour of the council rather the parliament, there is tons of laws coming from the European level (GDPR is a big one, but recently the EP voted against a medical visit for the driver licence) so this election has a big weight
  
  I can't vote anyway, because I never voted back in my passport home country. Despite holding EU citizenship and living in the EU.
  It sucks that voting rights aren't just tied to paying taxes - the EU should really sort that out, so it functions more like a whole citizenship wherever you live, like the USA is.
  
  You still should be able to vote in your new EU home country, if you register early enough.
- Why would any of this have to do with elections?
  
  Just Macron things, talk a lot before elections (European ones currently) to gather sympathy, then do nothing and be surprised when people call him out for not following up, blame someone or something else for his failures

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