2024-02-02 19:15:00
During a state visit to Sweden on January 30, Emmanuel Macron broke with 60 years of nuclear sovereignty: “France has the responsibility to make its nuclear deterrent capacity available to the European Union.” he assured proudly.
It’s no longer a secret; the French president is betting a lot on Europe. Would he be able to forget France for this reason? Asked before the Swedish Defense Academy about the use of nuclear deterrence to protect the European Union, Emmanuel Macron did not hesitate: “Yes, definitely!” And to justify himself: “Part of our vital interests are in the European Union and this gives us a particular responsibility”.
For the Gaullists, it is nothing more or less than “high treason”: “It is a fundamental break with French doctrine. With Gaullism. Nuclear weapons are intrinsically linked to our national sovereignty. is in fact transferring it to the EU: this means that we will possibly use it tomorrow in the event of a war between Poland or Latvia with Russia for example!”, gets angry Florian Philippot on Twitter (X).
And the president himself was convinced of this: “Our nuclear deterrent force remains, as a last resort, the keystone of our security and the guarantee of our vital interests. Today as yesterday, it guarantees our independence, our freedom of appreciation, decision and action. It prohibits the adversary from banking on the success of escalation, intimidation or blackmail”, he assured in 2020. But already, as reported The Tribune, he planned “a strategic dialogue” on the role of French nuclear deterrence in the security of Europe. “Our independence of decision is fully compatible with unwavering solidarity with our European partners,” he said at the time.
The Union is done… Soon NATO? A priori, no. If France constitutes in fact an allied power, Macron assured in 2020 that it “does not participate in the nuclear planning mechanisms of the Alliance and will not participate more in the future”. Besides, two years later, he may have shouted it a little loudly. In October 2022, while the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continued, he assured on television that France would not retaliate for Ukraine if Russia attacked with nuclear weapons. “A strategic error” which risked weakening the country, according to several senior military officers who then confided in FranceInfo.
The world has no shortage of conflicts. Come what may.
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