Can Macron's France make Europe stronger?
France's nuclear umbrella for Europe, a "coalition of the willing" led by France and the UK, a series of summits on the global situation in Paris - with his bold proposals and inclusive diplomacy, French President Emmanuel Macron seems intent on becoming the driving force in Europe. Commentators examine what this could mean for the continent.
A global player
Oliver Meiler, France correspondent for the Tages-Anzeiger, has several explanations for France's new leadership role in Europe:
“Macron is back, he is testing his strength against the big players in the world. ... But how solid is his leadership? Macron draws his current authority from three sources: firstly, as French president, he has a degree of power within the constitutional regime of the Fifth Republic that not even the Americans have. Secondly, Macron has a brilliant mind. He can talk, he talks a lot and often finds powerful words to describe the drama of the world. For eight years, he has been urging Europeans to build an autonomous defence force, and he was right. Thirdly, France has the nuclear bomb, an independent nuclear doctrine, weapons of its own production. Which makes it a global player.”
Risk the leap into a new era
Macron, Starmer, Merz and Meloni must now live up to their renowned predecessors, demands Index:
“We have now arrived at a critical juncture where there must be a major reorganisation after the withdrawal of the US, in a world that is noticeably changing in all manners. ... This requires politicians with imagination, intuition and foresight whose ideas and interviews not only sound good (see Macron), but whose decisions are relevant. They must find new connections in a disintegrating world that turn a reunited Europe into a political force. ... Are Meloni, Starmer, Merz and Macron capable of such an epochal leap? And will they leap together, as Thatcher, Kohl and Mitterrand did 30 years ago?”