As of: March 15, 2024, 12:27 p.m
By: Marcus Giebel
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Press
Split
Emmanuel Macron sets the tone for support for Ukraine before his visit to Berlin.
Olaf Scholz can also feel addressed by the criticism.
Paris – The course for further support for Ukraine will be set in Berlin this Friday.
Before he set off to visit Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron made it clear once again
in an interview with the TV channels
TF1
and
France 2 that Russia could only be defeated in the Ukraine war by demonstrating strength.
Macron on the Ukraine war: West must “be strong for peace”
“Our responsibility is to be strong for peace,” emphasized the French President in the half-hour conversation and referred to European unity: “Maintaining our unity means being strong - being strong to deter, strong to resist, to be strong for our security.”
If Russia wins the war, “Europe’s credibility will fall to zero.
What credibility would a power like the European Union have in front of our members that allowed this to happen?” There would no longer be security on the continent.
Not for France and especially not for the countries in the East: “Do you believe that the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Estonians, the Latvians, the Romanians, the Bulgarians can live in peace for a second?
And I’m not even talking about Moldova, which is not in the European Union today but would be threatened at any second.”
Shows determination: Emmanuel Macron does not want to set any limits when it comes to aid to Ukraine.
© Twitter/@TF1Info
In the interview, Macron demands: show “determination, will and courage” - reference to Scholz?
For Macron it is therefore clear: “In order to have peace in Ukraine, we simply cannot be weak.
And that is why we must look at the situation clearly and say with determination, will and courage that we are ready to deploy.”
France's head of state also criticized the previous approach: "If I may say so, we have set too many limits on our vocabulary." The 46-year-old continued: "Two years ago we said that we would never send tanks .
Then we did it.
Two years ago we said we would never send medium-range missiles.
Then we did it.”
This would put definitive statements “made by some in Europe” into perspective.
Even if Macron didn't mention a name here, Scholz could feel addressed.
The SPD politician continues to categorically rule out a delivery of Taurus cruise missiles.
It was only on Thursday that the Union failed with a corresponding proposal in the Bundestag.
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Macron warns Ukraine supporters: “If we are weak, we choose defeat”
In any case, Macron warned in the interview not to be intimidated by Vladimir Putin's threatening gestures.
"Today, if we choose to be weak, if in the face of someone who knows no boundaries, in the face of someone who has crossed all boundaries, we naively say, 'I won't go further than this or that.'
At this moment we do not choose peace.
“We are already choosing defeat,” he says, describing the consequences of hesitation.
These sentences came when asked whether he was actually thinking about sending French ground troops to Ukraine.
Otherwise, Macron made it known in this context: “We have one goal: Russia cannot and must not win this war.
We have been helping Ukraine for two years, and if things escalate, once again only Russia would be responsible.”
Historical ambience: Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj are said to have met in the hall of the Élysée Palace a good four years ago.
© Twitter/@TF1Info
Macron and nuclear weapons: “Not an instrument of threat, but an instrument of security”
For him: “We will never lead an offensive, never take the initiative.
France is a power of peace.” This is all the more important because his country is a nuclear power.
Therefore, France has a “special responsibility never to seek escalation, neither verbally nor in deeds.”
Nuclear weapons are “not an instrument of threat, but rather an instrument of security”.
What Putin and his followers apparently see differently.
Moscow regularly plays openly with the idea of using weapons of mass destruction.
However, this seems more like a means of deterring Ukraine supporters.
Macron himself has already spent “hundreds of hours” negotiating with the Kremlin boss.
According to his own statements, more than any other incumbent top politician.
But such discussions have become superfluous since Putin no longer respects any rules.
Macron meets Scholz and Tusk: Weimar Triangle discusses support for Ukraine
In December 2019, the only meeting between Russia's ruler and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had come into office just a few months earlier, took place in the Élysée Palace.
According to Macron, even in the same room as the interview.
A three-way meeting of a completely different kind is taking place in Berlin.
In addition to Macron, Scholz also invited the new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Whose country stands behind Ukraine more resolutely than any other country in Europe - which is probably due not least to the shared border.
This will be the first time the top politicians of the so-called Weimar Triangle have met since June 2023.
At that time, after months of preparation, Ukraine launched its second counteroffensive, which was met with great expectations from the West.
The Wagner mercenaries set off on an aborted march towards Moscow - on the orders of their boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who later died in a plane crash.
In Germany, the debate about Taurus deliveries slowly got going.
But no politician in the West seemed to be seriously considering sending their own soldiers to Ukraine at the time.
(mg)