“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.