Europa muss stärker sein und darf kein „Vasall“ der USA sein, sagt Frankreichs Macron

27 comments

1. I don’t disagree Europe needs to be stronger but at the moment and possibly foreseeable future, Europe will be dependent on US assistance to defend Europe from Russia.

   And if by chance, Trump is elected as US President then Macron will get his wish as US may pull itself out of NATO and Europe will truly be on their own to plan everything themselves.

2. Work harder, then. Perhaps retire at 70.

3. fine, don’t come crying to us when Russia comes knocking on your door.

4. How does macron not know the meaning of the word “vassal”?

5. Okay, then they’ll need to pony up their defense spending. The US might be dragging their feet recently with aid to Ukraine but don’t forget how large the American deterrent is. The rest of the European is poorly supplied and couldn’t last long in any attritional war. The Leo2 and Eurofighter might be sexy toys but they dearly lack the MIC to keep them firing on all cylinders

6. it costs money, speeches are free to make.

7. Europe and the countries in it are not our vassals. You used to be our bottom bitch until you started acting up. Now you guys are that problematic ho that we have to have our new bottom bitch keep an eye on so they don’t try to steal from the tip jar o.o . Assuming hos and pimps have tip jars

8. Well, what are you waiting for?

9. Why don’t they enforce mandatory defense spending for EU just like the did with the Paris Climate Agreement which totally reduced emissions and everyone stuck to

10. This guy knows what’s up

11. If France is currently a U.S. vassal, am I not entitled, as an American, to free shipments of Brie, Baguettes, and Wine?

12. I agree, but what’s with the adversarial/accusatorial wording here? It wasn’t the US that weakened Europe and made it disarm… You did that yourselves. On the contrary, the US has spent *decades* warning Europe that it has become too weak militarily and wasn’t holding up its commitments to its own collective defense needs. It’s Europe that has been using the US as a crutch despite the US’ complaints against such a reliance, not the US forcing Europe to do its bidding because it’s an evil overlord that has them by the balls. This is pretty ridiculous revisionist scapegoating by Macron here, but I guess if it works to get the western European powerhouses to finally pull their heads out of their asses on defense matters, then so be it…

13. Yeah can you imagine how idiotic that would sound if the US has been on our case to increase defense spending and stop stuffing Russia’s pockets for more than a decade now?

14. Bad time to post this only Americans awake.

15. Simple steps for Europe to become strong
    * Gradually increase defense spending.
    * Start selective legal immigration and deportations.
    * Focus on your own citizen’s welfare and economy.
    * Increase birth rate.
    * Ban TikTok

16. Tricky with an aging population I’d say

17. Europe cannot remain a disparate collection of states and a united confederation of states at the same time. Right now they live in this limbo that while good for economic reasons, does little for cohesion.

18. He’d much rather we’d be under French control.

19. Not with paid holidays, paid sick leave and social security.

    If you want to compete with an empire of slaves that produce non-stop, you have to work AT LEAST the same if not more.

    Europeans value work-life balance and will never be able to compete with people that never take holiday in 10 years, and go back to work 2 weeks after giving birth to a child.

20. wannabe napoleon

21. The US wholeheartedly agrees with this sentiment

22. Europe ruled the world for a millennia. Fought more wars and conquered more land than anywhere else in human history.

    Now the UK & EU are glorified school clubs that look to the bastard child US for support.
    Has the world changed so much?

    Americans barely leave home and aren’t overall “worldly” yet so much relies on their protection.

23. This speech is brought to you by the French MIC: because when your European nation needs to catch up on national defense spending because Russia has lost its mind, buy local!

    … but on a serious note, France’s MIC is one of the continent’s most developed, so given the very real need to rearm France is positioned to take a lot of those orders. Something to keep in mind as context to these.

24. Agreed, but he shouldn’t even use the word “vassal” in this context in order not to give it credibility. That’s Putin’s pitch.

25. Given how few of them hit their 2% commitment they were piss poor vassals. If anything they slid into that role because being a vassal iss cheaper than being an actual ally.

26. What’s with this schrodinger’s Russian threat?
    As we speak they are bogged down in Ukraine yet *somehow* Russia is a threat to Europe?
    Irrespective of NATO Article 5 assuming they try to nom some Baltic country next, people expect them to get through Poland which has one of the largest and well equipped armies in the EU?

    From Macron’s perspective he is only shilling for his nation’s MIC, the only “full stack” MIC in Europe without any American depedencies, submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, missiles the works.

27. EU legislation that forces member states to buy every weapon system they can from other member states. With even a medium growth in the arms sector Europe will be the second and in some systems the most advanced military on Earth. Plus nuclear expansion of France’s nuclear umbrella over east Europe.