Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau displayed, on Thursday, their determination to work for an “open and carbon-free” economy and for international cooperation on artificial intelligence, always with their own domestic political difficulties in the background.
• Also read: A second motion of censure tabled by the conservatives
• Also read: Macron in Canada: a first visit by the French president since 2018
• Also read: Macron in Montreal, but not in Quebec: Legault recalls the visit of Gabriel Attal
Like Wednesday evening, upon the arrival of the French president in Canada for a one-on-one dinner between the two leaders, the men displayed their closeness and common vision on numerous issues on Thursday morning.
“France and Canada share a beautiful common language and values,” declared Justin Trudeau, deeming it important to declare it to the world to have a “positive impact in these moments of great challenges”. The two countries also announced that they wanted to strengthen their defense partnership and their support for Ukraine.
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“We have an extremely aligned agenda. We believe in open economies, we believe in the decarbonization of our economies,” added Emmanuel Macron, evoking his “happiness” to be there.
As an echo of a remark he had made shortly before, during an exchange with French-speaking personalities wondering if France was “happy”.
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Because despite everything, the domestic political difficulties of the two men are never far away. The Prime Minister and his presidential host, who once embodied a new generation of young and daring leaders, are now experiencing the same disappointments.
At the G7 summit in Italy, shortly after the election of Emmanuel Macron in May 2017, their displayed complicity caused a lot of ink to flow.
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A “bromance” (fraternal romance), commentators then said.
Seven years later, Emmanuel Macron lost the legislative elections that he himself had called and now shares power with a right-wing prime minister.
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Justin Trudeau, for his part, is extremely weakened, unpopular and remains at the mercy of other motions of censure.
Defend the French language
The French president, who is hosting the Francophonie Summit in a week, also had a meeting with defenders of the French language.
“You are carriers of the Francophonie in a minority environment, of a language, of what it carries with it,” Emmanuel Macron told them. “It is not simply necessary that French resist, but that we can continue to inoculate it among the younger generations,” he added.
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Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau chose to go to Quebec for the second part of this official visit. During a lunch with experts, they will discuss artificial intelligence before holding a joint press conference in Montreal.
Canada is a developing country in AI, which is of particular interest to Paris, a few months before a summit on the subject in February in France.
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Emmanuel Macron will also praise the “attractiveness of France” to Canadian investors, as he did on Tuesday in New York during discussions with big names in finance, underlined the Élysée.
Political instability and debates on tax increases in France are causing growing concern in the economic world, including internationally.
AFP
An unmissable event, the French president will also meet with the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault. The meeting will take place in Montreal, which has nearly 200,000 French people, and not in Quebec, which has caused some French-speakers to cringe, attached to the symbol of the Quebec “capital”.
The latter will perhaps have the opportunity to discuss the question of immigration, which has also become a point of tension for the Quebec government in recent months.
“When we listen to the debates in France, people have the feeling that they are becoming a minority, that they are being pushed around by immigration, that we are coming to find them in their own language and they are finding suddenly the passion for a language,” declared the French president in the morning.
