where does this expression used by Emmanuel Macron come from?

“The world is made up of herbivores and carnivores.” This Thursday, November 7, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron went to Budapest, Hungary, for the summit of the European Political Community. On this occasion, the day after Donald Trump's victory in the American presidential election, Emmanuel Macron underlined his desire to assert the power of the Old Continent by invoking the metaphor of “geopolitical herbivores and carnivores”. “If we decide to remain herbivores, the carnivores will win”indicated the French president. Before continuing: “I think it wouldn’t be bad to choose to be omnivores.” But where does this image come from, and what does it mean?

In France, this animal metaphor has been regularly cited since 2020 by the former Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Hubert Védrine. “We are geopolitical herbivores, in a world of geopolitical carnivores. Soon we will be vegans and we will end up as prey”he declared in January 2020 during the report of the chair of major contemporary strategic issues at the Parisian university Panthéon Sorbonne. A few months later, in 2021, in front of preparatory class students from the prestigious Versailles Sainte-Geneviève high school, he reiterated his remarks, specifying that herbivores are “we Europeans”. Subsequently, in the media, he reused the wording several times.

A quote borrowed from a German minister

But Hubert Védrine never hid the fact that he was not the originator of this expression. Guest on Sud Radio in February 2022, he confided in resuming a “formula of a great German minister”, quoting former Federal Foreign Minister and now Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, without certainty. “I'm not sure who the minister is but I'm sure it's a German minister”he clarified. In reality, the expression of “geopolitical herbivores and carnivores” was first used in 2018 by the German social democrat, Sigmar Gabriel.

With this image, Emmanuel Macron criticizes Europe's position vis-à-vis our American and Chinese neighbors. Rather than remaining “under the thumb” of the United States, particularly in matters of defense, Europe should assert its power, especially in the wake of the re-election of Donald Trump who is considering a trade war across the world. Which gives, in the mouth of the French president: “I do not want to leave Europe as a formidable theater inhabited by herbivores that carnivores, according to their agenda, will come to devour.”

For him, Europe must not be afraid of words and its leaders must all “become aware” that it is about“an unrivaled geopolitical power”. “Simply, we have not yet accepted ourselves as a fully independent power. We think we need to delegate our geopolitics in the United States of America, that we must delegate our growth model to our Chinese customers, that we must delegate our technological innovation to American “hyperscalers”. It's not the best idea.”concluded the president.