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Ladies and gentlemen, I know I have been too long, but there is so much more to say. And I am well aware that at the end of this speech some people will criticise me for not talking enough about the African continent, our neighbourhood, treaty reform and modernisation, and everything else I haven’t said.
Europe is a never-ending conversation. It’s also a project that knows no borders. From a philosophical and civilisational point of view, it’s true. We must never forget that the abduction of Europe was carried out by a Greek god in lands that were supposed to be Asian. There’s a kind of ambiguity there, and that’s why it never ends.
Right here, at the Sorbonne, Ernest Renan asked what a nation was.
And the time has come for Europe to ask itself what it intends to become.
For me, talking about Europe is always talking about France. As you have seen, we are living in a decisive moment. Our Europe could die, as I said, and it could die by a ruse of history. The fact is that it has achieved a great deal in recent decades; the fact is that European ideas have won the Gramscian battle; the fact is that the nationalist movements throughout Europe no longer dare to say that they are going to leave the euro and the Union. But they’ve got us all used to the “yes-but” approach: “I’ll take everything Europe has done, but I’ll make it simpler; I’ll do it by not respecting the rules, by flouting its foundations”. Essentially, they’re not proposing to get out of the building or to demolish it; they’re just proposing not to have any more co-ownership regulations, not to invest, not to pay rent. And they say: “this will work”. And the risk is that all the others get scared and say: “The nationalists, the anti-Europeans, are very strong everywhere in our countries”. It’s normal, there’s fear, there’s anger in these moments of shock that we’re experiencing, precisely because our fellow citizens, all over Europe, feel that we could die or disappear.
The answer lies not in timidity, but in boldness. The answer is not to say, “They’re on the rise everywhere”, but to say, “We have a choice”. This year, the British will choose their future, the Americans will choose their future; on June 9th, the Europeans will do the same.
But the choice is not to do what we’ve always done, it’s not just to adapt. It’s about embracing new paradigms. Following Voltaire, I know it’s difficult to be optimistic — for some people it’s even a question of credibility. But it’s a form of optimism of will.
Yes, I believe we can regain control of our lives, of our destiny, through the power, prosperity and humanism of our Europe. And at a time of uncertainty, to quote Hannah Arendt in the Human Condition: “Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.”
What I propose is that, on the strength of our clear-sightedness, we make these few great promises for Europe over the coming decade, and fight hard to keep them. Then we may have a chance of knowing the future. In any case, we will have fought to choose ours.
Vive l’Europe ! Vive la République et vive la France !
Source link : https://geopolitique.eu/en/2024/04/26/macron-europe-it-can-die-a-new-paradigm-at-the-sorbonne/
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Publish date : 2024-04-26 07:00:00
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