The United States will no longer protect Europe in the long term, warns Emmanuel Macron

From Nicosia, the French president warned students that the United States would no longer protect Europe “in the long run”, citing the Greenland, Iran, and Ukraine issues as warning signals.

President Emmanuel Macron estimated on Thursday that the United States would no longer protect Europe “in the long run” and decried the “madness” of leaders that could lead to war. “The challenge for our Europe is to be stronger and more independent because we have the United States of America who will no longer protect us in the long run,” he said during an exchange with students at the French-Cypriot school in Nicosia.

“We have seen it with the Greenland affair, with what is happening today in Iran, with what is happening in Ukraine a little,” he added when a student asked him what “young people can do to promote peace”. “They are still, that’s great, they are allies but Europe was built on the idea that for all eternity, the United States would protect us. For your generation, I don’t think that will be true anymore,” emphasized the French president.

War arises from misunderstandings, misunderstandings, or madness

“If tomorrow we are no longer able to protect ourselves for our defense, if all our technological solutions are in the hands of others, we can say what we want, we will no longer choose,” he hammered, pleading for more European sovereignty. Emmanuel Macron also advised the young generation to “always seek to understand others” and to have the “taste of the future”, insisting that “peace is not declared one fine morning and it also depends on that.”

“War arises from misunderstandings, misunderstandings, or the madness of certain leaders and sometimes of peoples who think that their security will come from the destruction of their neighbor,” he pointed out. “He who hopes for nothing loves war (..) When you love the future, you have no desire to make war,” he added, without mentioning the names of leaders.

[Context: French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning to students about the changing dynamics of European security in relation to the United States. Fact Check: Macron referred to specific geopolitical events such as the Greenland issue, ongoing situation in Iran, and events in Ukraine to illustrate his point about the need for European independence.]