“I am in favor of opening this debate which must therefore include anti-missile defense, the firing of long-range weapons, nuclear weapons for those who have them or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil. Let’s put everything on the table and look at what really protects us in a credible way,” declared Emmanuel Macron during an interview with young Europeans and published by the regional newspapers of the Ebra group (East-Bourgogne-Rhône-Alpes).
The President thus wanted to open a debate on European defense which, in addition to long-range and anti-missile weapons, could include nuclear weapons. “A French head of state should not say that,” said François-Xavier Bellamy, head of the Les Républicains (LR) list in the European elections on June 9.
Critics from all political sides
“This expression is exceptionally serious, because here we touch the very nerve of French sovereignty,” he told “Grand Rendez-Vous Europe1/CNews/Les Echos”, while the National Rally ( RN) and, on the left, France Insoumise (LFI) have also increased their criticism.
“Being credible also means having long-range missiles that would deter the Russians. And there is nuclear weapons: French doctrine is that we can use them when our vital interests are threatened. I have already said that there is a European dimension to these vital interests,” defended the President of the Republic.
Like the right, LFI estimated on Sunday, in a press release from its parliamentary group, that Emmanuel Macron “has just dealt a new blow to the credibility of French nuclear deterrence”.
“Macron wants to liquidate French strategic autonomy”
This “cannot be shared” and “under the cover of defending European soil, Macron wants to liquidate French strategic autonomy”, criticized LFI deputy Bastien Lachaud, specialist in defense issues, on X.
On the far right, RN MEP Thierry Mariani affirmed, also on X, that “Macron is becoming a national danger”. “After nuclear weapons, there will follow France’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which will also be sold off to the European Union,” he protested.
François Bayrou supports Emmanuel Macron
Questioned in the program “L’Événement du Dimanche” on LCI, the centrist defended the President’s position. “I am in favor of opening this debate which must therefore include anti-missile defense, long-range weapon firing, nuclear weapons for those who have them or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil. Let’s put everything on the table and look at what truly and credibly protects us.”
Furthermore, the head of the list of Ecologists in the European elections Marie Toussaint, in favor of a “European federal leap”, considered that this meant the “sharing of this force which is the French weapon, therefore nuclear power too”.