Macron asks Europe to fight “return of nationalisms”

Macron made these statements during a meeting in Metz – in the presence of Pope Leo XIV, who is visiting France – on European construction and peace.

“ Here the millennial heart of Europe pulses, a Europe that protects, unites and acts. A sovereign and democratic Europe, driven by this project of peace and prosperity. A Europe that must regain the courage of its founders (...) the courage not to yield to isolationism, to hatred for others, to the return of nationalisms that divide”, said Macron.

In his last public speech before Leo XIV on this trip — and Macron will later attend a Mass celebrated by the Pope in Metz — the French President again defended Europe.

A Europe, according to Macron, was “built on a Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian basis”, in Franco-German reconciliation and in the “will of the peoples who came out of dictatorships” after 1945, but today it is “shocked by the return of empires”.

The French President referred to Europe’s support for Ukraine “before Russia’s military aggression”, but also to the “acceleration of building a Europe of defence and peace”. Facing the Russian threat, the French President pointed out, also implies “defending a social model”, which involves improving competitiveness, combating climate change and controlling technologies.

“To guarantee real sovereignty, we need to act. To act, first, to ensure our security and to preserve our values. For peace is not decreed, it is built patiently by craftsmen of good will, lucid and constant”, said Emmanuel Macron, who had already received the Pope on Friday, in the Palace of the Elisha.

Europe is not “a power that erases nations, but a force that prolongs and expands their ability to act and control their destiny,” he continued.

The “European heritage” “crystalized” the “primacy of the person and subsequently of the free and rational individual”, “freedom, critical spirit, attachment to science, liberal democracy”, as well as the “capitalism and free trade, inseparable from the welfare state and social democracy,” Macron added.