French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to assert itself on the world stage, saying it is time to start acting like a “power”.

In the face of growing threats from China, Russia and now the US, he told a group of European newspapers that the continent faced a “wake-up call”.

"Are we ready to become a power? This is the question in the field of economy and finance, in defence and security, and in our democratic systems.

“In another era we might have said it is the moment to ‘assume our majority’,” he said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels later this week.

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    That means cutting ties with Israel and the Zionist oligarchs trying to implement mass surveillance. They don’t seem to understand that basic reality though because they keep trying to force the digital ID through Zionist Larry Ellisons company Oracle onto their populace.

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    This is like telling Lemmy US leftists that they need to start reinforcing their communities and getting social and start grassroots movements to get better representation in their states.

    It’s a great message, but the mob is too varied and complacent to actually treat the situation as dire as it really is.

  • TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz
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    7 hours ago

    No. They are not ready. If all your computers and phones “phone home” with “home” being your adversary’s country (that’s how USA deals with Europe in the last year), then you cannot call yourself a world power. Most PCs in Europe use Windows and MacOS. Almost all phones are either Android or iOS. And even if they managed to replace all the software with locally developed Linux, all recent (last 20 years) x86 PCs have either Intel Management Engine or AMD Security Technology. If they chose to make intensive efforts to replace their systems, computers and phones, it would take at least a decade to achieve this. And even then, the US would likely be able to penetrate their systems. It’s so much easier to yield to the Emperor of the Western World for the perennially submissive European serfs.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    He’s right.

    They need to focus on making every European nation a nuclear power. You can’t trust the US when we’re on our second consecutive brain-damaged president in a row.

    • Parade du Grotesque
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      2 hours ago

      Yeah, what a fantastic idea: let’s give the Orban’s and the Meloni’s of Europe (stable geniuses one and all) things that go boom and make a nice mushroom cloud.

      Fantastic.

      We already have two nuclear powers in Europe.

    • plyth@feddit.org
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      6 hours ago

      They need to focus on making every European nation a nuclear power.

      The power of nuclear weapons comes from being used in a retaliation strike. For that a submarine is needed. Soon space weapons are needed to disable the counter-measures.

      Just 10 bombs and 10 bombers is not enough.

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    Indeed we should. So long as this doesn’t mean that we move towards being isolationists, imperialists or Nazi’s.

  • Lembot_0006@programming.dev
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    11 hours ago

    Does Europe have any power? If yes, then Ukraine is the perfect place to demonstrate it. Imagine how powerful 1 million artillery shells per month would look. A hundred tanks and planes per month would look powerful too. Thousand missiles per month might send the powerful message too.

    Talking and urging isn’t powerful.

    • arrrse@piefed.social
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      10 hours ago

      The problem with eu is 27 different nations who have their own agendas and goals and mostly everyone wants to keep it that way. Unlike russia and china and soon usa, EU is a democracy and in a democracy talking and urging is necessary. Its a shame that it’s come to this but im hoping that eu becomes a federation or something like that to maybe make it a bit more efficient and keep up / repel the others

      • bufalo1973@piefed.social
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        7 hours ago

        I think the better way is a federation but not for everything. Only for diplomacy, defense and little more. At least as a first step. That way there’s no possibility of having an uberpressident that can do the same Trump is doing.

        • WaxRhetorical@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Essentially, united on foreign policy but not domestic (barring stuff like human rights)? Superficially it seems sensible enough.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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        7 hours ago

        The EU is comprised of sovereign entities, but those entities have chosen to give up certain competencies to the Union for various benefits. The EU already handles trade diplomacy and monetary policy through democratic institutions; it isn’t that hard to imagine that could also take on competencies related to defense.

        The EU also could share the competency of defense with the various nations. After all, there are other countries which have sub national entities that have their own militaries.

  • Zorque@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    It’s less about being a power. The British Empire was “A Power”. The US is “A Power”. Russia has been “A Power” and wants people to think it still is. China is “A Power”.

    Unless you use it to the benefit of the people, it’s just posturing.

  • Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I lived in Strasbourg during the 2018 Christmas terrorist attack. French gendarmerie kicked ass. Europe needs a standing army. Go build one.

  • Akasazh@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I really like Macron in his foreign policy mode, it just a shame he pissed the bed by opening a loophole that will be abused if ever an amoral president gets in power.

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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    8 hours ago

    EU leaders are waking up slowly. When they finally wake up and start acting Ukraine will be part of Russia and Greenland part of US.

  • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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    11 hours ago

    Can we put him in VdL’s place once he is done in France? He would make a great President of Europe.

    • myrmidex@belgae.social
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      11 hours ago

      How do you determine he’d make a great president? What great things has he achieved as president of France?

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        7 hours ago

        He’s proven effective at overseeing a stalemate, so he’d be within his element at the EU.

        He’s also a good diplomat.

        • Lembot_0006@programming.dev
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          10 hours ago

          Is he perceived well? In my region he is perceived as a bla-bla-bla man(including bla-bla-bla with Putin when nobody asked for it).

        • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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          10 hours ago

          Can’t really please French people if they want a president that lowers the retirement age to 45 and doubles everyones vacation days each year.

          Obvious /s in case that’s not apparent. Unironically, this is how french politics is often portrayed in Swiss media though.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      5 hours ago

      China may not be perceived as a military threat, but it is credibly an economic threat. China is returning to a state where Europe has difficulty conducting trade with China as China will only accept natural resources for trade. That can be dangerous for an economy with a large safety net, declining productivity, and little in terms of natural resources.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      Because they like imperialism. All the imperialistic superpowers are a threat to humanity.

    • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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      10 hours ago

      Not all threats are military. China is the economic threat but it also has military might.

      EDIT: From the article.

      "Are we ready to become a power? This is the question in the field of economy and finance, in defence and security, and in our democratic systems.

  • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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    10 hours ago

    Translation: “We should increase spending on military equipment so that later we can become fascist and hand it all off to an authoritarian regime to use. We should do this instead of fixing any actual problems, because addressing the root cause of those problems would mean acknowledging that those problems are caused by the ruling class, who own and control ‘democracy’.”