Emmanuel Macron on Monday called on France and Europe to “know how to cooperate” with Donald Trump, but strongly denounced, in the same speech, a “new reactionary international” supported, according to him, by the billionaire Elon Musk, a strong ally of the President-elect of the United States.
Presenting his foreign policy roadmap to the French ambassadors gathered at the Élysée, the French president seemed to want to have it both ways, scratching the boss of Tesla, X and SpaceX, while sparing the populist tribune who will make his return at the White House on January 20. Drawing on his “experience”, Emmanuel Macron, in power since 2017, invoked the Republican’s first mandate to put European fears into perspective.
“From 2016 to 2020, France was able to work with President Trump”, despite “disagreements”, and Europe “did not fail” when “we were predicted the worst”, he said. declared.
“If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance of being respected by President Trump’s United States of America. It’s up to us to know how to cooperate with the choice that was made by the American people,” insisted the Head of State. He assured that the most famous ghost in the world “knows that he has a solid ally in France”.
Emmanuel Macron therefore indirectly attacked the populist tribune by attacking the movement of thought which accompanied his victory and of which he is the symbol. And above all, without naming him, Elon Musk, who has become one of his main allies.
“Ten years ago, if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new reactionary international and intervene directly in the elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined it?” he told the diplomats.
Emmanuel Macron’s comments should cool the good relations he has shown so far with Elon Musk. “We have so much to do together,” enthused the French president in 2023 after one of their many meetings, when he hoped to convince him to install a Tesla battery factory in France.
Emmanuel Macron therefore forcefully called for us not to give in to “a kind of deadly fascination with the international reactionaries”. “They are very strong, they have money,” but they now embody “unified thinking.” “Our liberal democracies have not been effective enough in the face of the challenges of the middle classes, that is true”, but that does not mean “that illiberal democracies or authoritarian regimes would be more effective”, insisted the French president .
