On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron will lay out his vision for Europe as a global force in a speech he expects will have the same effect as one he gave seven years ago, which foresaw some major changes in EU policy.
Macron, 46, aims to convince his detractors that he is not a lame duck president and that he still possesses the enthusiasm and innovative ideas that propelled him to the presidency in 2017. He only has three years left in his second and last term in office.
In 2022, Macron lost his legislative majority and suffered a decline in public support. In the run-up to the European Parliament elections on June 6–9, his centrist Renaissance party is now lagging the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in surveys.
Macron's aides have not disclosed much about the topic of the speech, which will be held at Paris' Sorbonne University as in 2017, other than saying he intends to chart out a roadmap for Europe to be a more forceful power against a more complex global landscape that includes conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
Macron's advisors describe the speech as France's contribution to the five-year strategic agenda of the EU. The agenda will be chosen by EU leaders negotiating over the bloc's top positions following the European elections.
Macron emphasized ideas like "European sovereignty" and "strategic autonomy" in his 2017 speech; these terms have subsequently become interchangeable in Brussels. Just as Britain was about to leave the EU, the doctrine increased the influence of French statist ideals.
Since then, during the COVID epidemic, Macron has persuaded member states to consent to the issuing of joint debt, which has long been forbidden for Germany. Besides, earlier French proposals, like a carbon tax on non-EU nations, have been codified into European legislation.
In trying to convince other nations to rely less on the US and American weaponry for self-defense, he has had less success. Some EU officials feel that there isn't an appropriate replacement for the US military at this time.
Although Macron's advisors dispute that he is giving a barely concealed election campaign speech, it is expected that he is trying to galvanize his supporters before the polls as his party continues to lag behind Marine Le Pen's RN.
There is currently a 15-point difference between Le Pen's front-runner, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, and Macron's choice, little-known European Parliament member Valerie Hayer.
In the polls, MEP Raphael Glucksmann, the front-runner for the Socialists, is also rising quickly and closing the gap on Hayer. Macron would find it embarrassing to finish third because losing his domestic legislative majority has made governing more difficult.