Emmanuel Macron misses no occasion to channel his inner de Gaulle.
For nearly a decade the president has badgered European leaders with his call for “strategic autonomy”. They have responded with eye-rolling or indifference.
France’s “Buy European” strategy has long been regarded by its American-equipped friends as a sales pitch for French kit. When France calls for more joint borrowing to rearm Europe, its friends hear: get somebody else to pay.
When France urges more spending on European defence, its friends hear: more contracts for French makers of fighter jets, missiles and engines.
De Gaulle’s grandstanding towards America was in part an attempt to preserve the country’s great-power status despite its often brutal mishandling of the retreat from empire. France, wrote the general, “cannot be France without grandeur”.
As European leaders grapple with the implications of the transatlantic rift, a few still hope this is a passing moment.
The Economist 18 February 2026
Macron Urges European Strategic Autonomy
“Strategic autonomy must be the battle of Europe,”
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