For Michel Onfray, “we are heading towards a third world war”

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For the French philosopher, Michel Onfray, the world is heading towards a third world war. Invited on Thursday January 26 to the program “Punchline” on CNews, he considered that the war in Ukraine is the consequence of “incompetence” of Europe, which could have avoided it by making “politics and diplomacy”. Having no illusions, he did not hesitate to affirm that Western countries, including France, are in “direct conflict” with Russia.

The war in Ukraine “doesn’t come out of nowhere”underlined the founder of the magazine Popular Front : “TV decided it had been a year [que ce conflit a commencé]“but it exists since 2014: “We didn’t care. Then all of a sudden the media is talking about it and it becomes the problem…Things have happened before” the outbreak of the Russian offensive. Events which, in his opinion, explain the causes of the current situation.

Quoting the Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz and his work Of the warin which he explains that “War is politics continued by other means”Michel Onfray maintains that what is happening in Ukraine is the consequence of a “failed policy” and that Europe, however, “had had the means to do politics for 10 years”. “Macron’s predecessors, from Holland, were likely to do politics, but nothing was done”, he laments.

“We are in direct conflict with Russia“

The philosopher attributes this situation to the failure of Europe, which “never really existed”. And to continue: “If Europe had really existed, as a political option and not as a kind of economic club, we could have thought of all these things. There would have been a Normandy format or agreements similar to those of Minsk (…) in a Gaullist spirit”.

Moreover, Michel Onfray did not fail to reject the “language elements” reporting a “Awakening of Europe” or of “his return”. For him, on the contrary, “Since the covid, it is the collapse of Europe and not the awakening of Europe“. “It is problematic to see this Europe totally collapsed but which still and always rules the law”he added.

On other language, the ‘Punchline’ guest debunks claims by Western leaders that they are not and do not wish to enter “in direct war” with Russia: “There is really only Macron to explain to us that we provide weapons of war but that at the same time, we are not co-belligerents. Well of course. We are in direct conflict with Russia.”

Furthermore, the writer recalls that “Putin is one in a game of chess with another partner, the United States.“ “These two powers clash with Ukraine as a pretext (…) If you enter into a coalition against Russia, it is quite obvious that it will at some point take care of us”, he warns.

“A Third World War”

He also did not rule out the possibility of Russian offensives against France or members of the Western coalition. “An invasion is not just Russian tanks on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. They have hackers who can do whatever they want. Everything works with digital. You can wage war on hospitals, ports, airports, hamper economies, leak information, enter bank servers, slow down a nuclear power plant. Which would be very damaging. Cyberwar is now possible”he recalls.

Michel Onfray considers “that we are going ahead of a third world war, nicely, gently“. “Putin is not one to step down. There is a kind of overkill. He said “we’ll burn your tanks”. “What is burning? What does it mean? Burning with an atomic bomb? With tanks?”, he wonders.

According to the guest of CNews, to defend Ukraine, the solution can only come “diplomacy and politics. Peace is always preferable to war…”

Bouncing on the debate around the pension reform, on which he was questioned in the same interview, the philosopher affirms that this war “costs five million euros to the French every day.“And when we are told that there is no money for pensions, for the poor, to raise the minimum wage… One and a half billion euros per year given for Ukraine to wage a war that we could have avoided (…) Previously, Zelensky was an oligarch who embezzled money and put it in tax havens. And we come to this situation where we absolutely have to defend Ukraine”, he protests.

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