L'Empereur Emmanuel

“Jovian” French President Emmanuel Macron spelt out this week, for anyone with lingering doubts, that membership of the European Union is incompatible with national sovereignty and independence – and that the bloc should assume an imperial role.

In deference to the new Sun King, newspapers in all of the 28 current member states dutifully printed his proclamation on Monday, including Britain's liberal sneer-sheet The Guardian.

Macron began by repeating the common but false claim that the EU, established in 1993 as a successor to the European Economic Community (which only contained NATO members), had kept the peace in Europe since the end of WWII.

Then he turned on those, like Britain, daring to reassert national self-determination. “What country can act on its own in the face of aggressive strategies by the major powers?” Macron asked, seemingly ignoring the fact that three of the great military and economic powers are currently EU members.

“Who can claim to be sovereign, on their own, in the face of the digital giants?” he asked. “How would we resist the crises of financial capitalism without the euro, which is a force for the entire EU?”

Certainly the euro has benefited rich north-western EU members like France and Germany, but it has crippled the economies of southern and eastern states who could previously make their exports and tourism more competitive by allowing their currencies to devalue.

“Nationalists are misguided when they claim to defend our identity by withdrawing from the EU,” Macron declared, warning of the prospect of “populists” – in contrast to the unpopular French leader's 'Republic on the March!' party – gaining ground in this summer's European Parliament elections.

Rather “it is European civilisation that unites, frees and protects us,” – from what, the barbarians from the east and south? 'Western' civilisation grew up around the Mediterranean, where Africa and Asia meet Europe.

Macron wants the walls of Fortress Europe to be buttressed even further. “The boundary is freedom in security,” he wrote, demanding “stringent border controls” along with “a single asylum policy with common acceptance and refusal rules” – moves towards which have already caused a rift between Brussels and the newer member states in the east.

Rather than step back from the undemocratic superstate tendencies that prompted Brexit, the young pretender urged the EU to become a monolithic military superpower with a “treaty on defence and security.”

That would tie members into increased defence spending, a “mutual defence clause” to drag them into wars started by other nations and a continental security council – doubtless dominated by the big military powers France and Germany – “to prepare our collective decisions.” The last two European military “collective decisions” were the destruction of Libya and the attempted re-run of that scenario in Syria.

Echoing US President Donald Trump's bid to tear up the very World Trade Organisation rules that the US created, Macron also urged an iron barrier to competition from imports from outside the bloc.

“What country in the world would continue to trade with those who respect none of their rules?” he complained. “We cannot suffer in silence” – as developing nations have suffered from the EU's steep tariffs on finished goods but not raw materials?

“We need to reform our competition policy and reshape our trade policy, penalising or banning businesses that compromise our strategic interests and fundamental values.”The neoliberal 'Four Freedoms' must reign within the EU, but without they must be mercilessly crushed.

In an apparent reply to the Italian government's criticism of French neo-colonialism in Africa as the cause of the Mediterranean refugee crisis, Macron called for even more European meddling in their southern neighbours' affairs.

"A world-oriented Europe needs to look to Africa, with which we should enter into a covenant for the future, ambitiously and non-defensively supporting African development with investment, academic partnerships and education for girls."

“Europe is not a second-tier power,” the would-be emperor declared. “Europe in its entirety is a vanguard: it has always defined the standards of progress.” If that's what you call progress, then please take us back to before 1993.

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