Emmanuel Macron in his own words (English)

Editor’s note: The interview was conducted at the Elysée Palace in Paris on April 29th. The French transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. This English translation was done by The Economist

The Economist: In your speech at the Sorbonne, you said that “Europe can die”. What does that actually mean? What is at stake?

President Macron: I was referring to Paul Valéry’s words after the First World War about the fact that we now know that a civilisation can die. Firstly, because we have a military and geopolitical risk, a security risk. Europe is not the safest region in the world, even though the continent has a model of armed forces that is now solid, comprehensive and effective, such as the French army. However, when we look at Europe as a whole, we see that it has invested far less in its defence and security than the United States or China, and that it finds itself in a global environment where proliferation is making a comeback: Russia, but also Iran and other powers. And not only is high-intensity warfare returning to European soil, but it is being waged by a nuclear-armed power with belligerent rhetoric. All this means that Europe must legitimately ask itself the question of its military protection. And indeed, it must prepare itself to no longer enjoy the same protection from the United States of America, as I said back in 2019 in your columns. We have to get ready to protect ourselves.