The European Union risks being torn apart by a “civil war” between its liberal and authoritarian democracies, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France has warned.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Macron said that the EU must “build a new European sovereignty” and embark on much needed reforms to save the bloc.
The ardent Europhile was given a standing ovation and numerous compliments by adoring MEPs during the plenary debate on the future of Europe after Brexit.
“We have a context of division and indeed doubt within Europe,” Mr Macron said. “There seems to be a sort of European civil war where selfish interests sometimes appear more important than what unites Europe.”
In a thinly veiled swipe at Hungary and Poland, Mr Macron said Europe was in the grips of “a fascination with the illiberal”.
Brussels is at loggerheads with Warsaw over Poland’s controversial judicial reforms and there are also concerns about the rule of law in Hungary after strongman Vikto Orban’s election campaign, which was won by stoking fears over immigration.
“We are seeing authoritiarinism all around us,” Mr Macron said, “ The response is not authoritarian democracy but the authority of democracy.”
“In these difficult times, European democracy is our best chance,” he added before warning against the “deadly tendency” of national selfishishness and egotism that could lead the continent “to the abyss”.
Evoking the Second Word War, Mr Macron said he belonged to a generation that had never experienced war and that he “suffered the luxury of forgetting what happened to our ancestors”.
“I don’t want to be part of a generation of sleepwalkers. A generation that has forgotten its past,” he declared as the plenary chamber broke into applause.
“I will not give in to any kind of fixation on authoritarianism,” said Mr Macron, “I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to attain it.
“European sovereignty is the system I believe in,” Mr Macron said. “Defending Europe is not defending something abstract or the dilution of our own sovereignty.” READ MORE
