Emmanuel Macron insisted yesterday that Europe must “strengthen” identity and sovereignty, to the point of defending protectionist policies in key areas, such as infrastructure and cyber security. The French president gave a speech at the Nexus Institute, in The Hague, during the first day of the state visit to the Netherlands.
Macron’s speech was interrupted for two minutes, at the beginning, by the protest of several young people in the audience, a rather unusual event for a foreign guest of this rank. The protesters criticized him for the pension reform and his alleged inaction in the face of the climate emergency.
“The president of violence and hypocrisy,” one banner read, in English. “I think we have lost something: where is French democracy?” said one of the young people. “He ignored the Parliament, when will he listen to millions of people in the street?”, said another young man, before the security service took away the disruptors of the event with expeditious means.
As usual, the French head of state, who loves dialectic, tried to explain himself to his critics, calmly, and told them that France is a democracy and that it would be in danger if the decisions taken by representatives of the people would be questioned in their legitimacy by those who disagree. He then defended the pension reform because he considers it “essential” and recalled that the retirement age in other European countries is higher than 64, the threshold set by the new law.
After the incident, Macron continued with the arguments in favor of European sovereignty, which, according to him, has become even more imperative due to the double crisis of the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The speech in front of the Nexus Institute served to complete what Macron said at the weekend, after returning from China, in a controversial interview with the economic magazine Les Echos. In these statements, the French president warned that European states must not be “vassals”, but must become “a third pole” between the United States and China. Macron distanced himself from “the logic of blocs” and spoke out against “the extraterritoriality of the dollar”, that is, against the hegemonic role of the United States’ currency in the global economy. This clear demarcation by Macron of the American ally created irritation on the other side of the Atlantic and among other European countries much more in favor of the link with Washington.
In The Hague, Macron defended a European-wide green industrial policy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. “Our interests must be protected”, he said, adding: “If we consider that they may be compromised, then we must act”. According to Macron, it is necessary to “filter investments to certain essential sectors” and where there may be vulnerabilities or where European security is at risk.
It had been 23 years since a French president had made a state trip to the Netherlands. It is the return of the visit made by King William and Queen Máxima in 2016. Yesterday there was a gala dinner in Amsterdam. Today the day is dedicated to political meetings, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and between the respective governments, and to technological cooperation between both countries. The sovereigns of the Netherlands will this Wednesday accompany Macron and his wife, Brigitte, to see an exhibition about the painter Johannes Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Dutch cultural event of this spring.
