Brussels Morale in a war is key and European leaders want to prevent the Ukrainian people from falling into pessimism. The armed conflict in Ukraine is at a standstill and everything points to it being protracted, and among Western allies the feeling of fatigue is increasing, especially in the power that has so far supported Kyiv the most, the United States. But around 20 European heads of state and government conspired this Monday in Paris to once again make a show of strength and ratify their support for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, even if the data is bad. “We are in a moment that undoubtedly requires everyone’s effort,” remarked the French president and host of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron.
Sign up for the International newsletter What seems far away matters more than ever
Sign up for it
In this sense, as various European leaders have pointed out for some time, Macron has opted to promote Europe’s military autonomy, especially in the face of the imperialism of Vladimir Putin’s regime and the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House. And, the French president has even gone a step further and said directly that the “collective analysis” of the Western allies represented at the meeting is that “in a few years we must prepare for Russia to attack “.
In fact, the Gaulish leader has insisted that “Russia cannot and will not win the war”, both “for the good of Ukraine” and for the “security” of the Old Continent as a whole “today and tomorrow”. “Right now, everyone’s safety is at stake,” Macron said at the start of the meeting.
Macron and international leadership
Macron has always aspired to be a great international leader, and although constant internal crises have weakened him both inside and outside France and prevented him from playing that role, he never gives up. Shortly after the invasion, the Gaulish leader was heavily criticized by the rest of the allies for keeping an open channel of dialogue with Putin and for saying, for example, that “humiliating Russia” should be avoided. But now it’s been more than a year since those errant steps and Macron, who has received all the leaders with the traditional French pomp, is trying again.
The President of the Republic wants to assert his position as the main military power of the Old Continent (and his imperial past) and establish himself as the great leader who gathers Western support in Kyiv, especially after the vacuum that may be left by the US if Trump wins the election. However, in truth, France has given much less military and financial support to Ukraine than Germany, which has broken with its traditional pacifist stance since World War II.
In fact, Berlin has often criticized Paris and other European partners, such as Spain, for providing less support to Ukrainian troops than the German country itself or, for example, the countries of Eastern Europe, the Nordics or the baltic It has also been one of the member states that has put more pressure on the European Union as a whole, which has already agreed to allocate another 50,000 million euros to Kyiv over the next five years.
In this sense, one of the most prominent attendees of the meeting was the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, together with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, or the Acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands and main candidate to preside over NATO, Mark Rutte. On the other hand, one of the most prominent absences has been that of the Italian Prime Minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, that of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, or that of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak.
2024-02-26 17:51:30
#Macron #warns #prepare #years #Russia #attack
