Macron: UK and France must save Europe

LONDON — French President Emmanuel Macron said the Anglo-French partnership is entering a new era in which both France and the United Kingdom have a “special responsibility” to safeguard European security.

In an address to both U.K. Houses of Parliament on the first day of his state visit — the first afforded to any European leader since Brexit — Macron said it was up to both London and Paris to “defend the international order” in the tradition of Winston Churchill against the flouting of “international rules by destabilizing powers” which are “attempting to divide up the world to their advantage.”

“Our two countries have a special responsibility for the security of the continent,” Macron said. “What is at stake today in Europe is our ability to shoulder the responsibility to ensure our continent’s security ourselves to a greater extent.”

The French president has long called on Europe to seek more “strategic autonomy” and become less reliant on the United States, especially when it comes to European defense — a push has times excluded the U.K. 

But Macron’s call for Europe to “derisk” may have fallen on deaf ears in Westminster, with the U.K. still firmly attached to the special relationship with Washington.

“We need to derisk our society and economies … We need to derisk excessive dependencies towards the U.S. and China,” he told lawmakers. Macron, however, added that he didn’t put China and the United States in the same basket.  

Macron will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer Wednesday. | POOL photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

Macron spoke at Westminster after he and his wife Brigitte were earlier welcomed to Windsor by the King and Queen, where they led a carriage procession and had lunch in Windsor Castle. Macron’s trip is the first state visit since King Charles took the throne, and both the palace and Downing Street have rolled out the red carpet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has addressed the U.K. parliament twice despite not being afforded a full state visit, while Donald Trump did not give a speech at Westminster during his 2019 state visit.

Macron used the address to underline his commitment to the “coalition of the willing,” the initiative spearheaded by the U.K. and France to protect any Ukrainian ceasefire, which the French president described in his speech as a “signal that Europeans will never abandon Ukraine.”

He said European leaders needed to call for a ceasefire in Gaza without any conditions in order to demonstrate that “there is no double standard” when it comes to the Middle East, specifying that working towards the recognition of Palestinian statehood is “the only path to peace.”

That’s a bold message in the U.K. Questioned by MPs on the subject Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said only that he “hoped” Palestinian statehood would be part of any peace process.

France’s first couple will return to Windsor Tuesday evening for a state banquet. Macron will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer Wednesday which are expected to focus on tackling irregular migration.  

Macron also announced that France will loan the famed Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum from next year, quipping that “it took probably more years to deliver this project than all the Brexit texts.”