Three years after describing NATO as “brain dead,” Emmanuel Macron is once again playing transatlantic irritant. After a trip to China that was heavy on business contracts and light on geopolitical wins, the French president has annoyed allies from the Baltic to the Beltway by saying Europeans should stand apart from the US on China and Taiwan or risk becoming “vassals.”
This is not the first De Gaulle-style flourish from a French leader looking to steer Europe down a less Atlanticist path. What makes this different is the timing: The Ukraine war has entered its second grueling year, the US is heading into new elections and Europe’s post-Cold War dependence on Washington has never been more obvious. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki crowed that the US was the “foundation” of Europe’s security. US Republican Senator Marco Rubio asked if Macron was speaking for Europe, throwing in a few free hits for good measure by mocking French counter-terror campaigns in the Sahel and threatening a US pivot from the Ukraine war to focus on China.
