From 1787, when o Marquis de Lafayette (before it became a store) he said he regretted helping him George Washington to expel the English from America, until 2025, which o Emmanuel Macron he realized that the last person he would want to kick the Russians out of Ukraine is Donald TrumpFrance’s relations with the United States of America have been extremely complicated. Of course, France is the only one of the so-called Great Powers of Europe that has never reached a state of – cold or hot – war with the USA. On the other hand, none of the World War II allies disliked the American president so much. Roosevelt (and the British Prime Minister Churchill) while o De Gaulle. An antipathy that led the French general, after the war, to the correct – as it turns out today – conclusion that “no state without an atomic bomb can be considered truly independent”.
Love, hate and fake news
In all likelihood, the French penchant for independence is why Trump and Macron have been dancing in recent days to the tune of “je t’ aime moi non plus,” a love-hate song. Of course, this does not prevent the two presidents from declaring themselves friends. “Man, I don’t understand what you’re doing with Greenland” Macron wrote to Trump. “Macron is my friend, but he won’t be around for long” Trump said in Davos, where he didn’t hesitate to address even the Top Gun-style sunglasses the French president wore to the World Forum, saying “plays it tough”. Fake news of course, since the glasses of the president of the French Republic were certainly not the Ray-Ban 3025 Aviator Classic model worn in the film by Tom Cruise. It was the Pacific SO1 model, worth 650 euros, of the French house Henry Jullien, which, phew, was bought three years ago by the Italians.
Beginning of the rift with the Eurosat
Regardless of this little misunderstanding, Trump and Macron know each other very well. The first was elected for the first time in 2016 and the second in 2017, declaring then, in a way, both “anti-systemic”. It was the era of bromance (from brothers and romance). But like all good things, friendships end at some point. In their case, the dissolution of friendship took place in 2018, when Macron spoke, for the first time, of a “Euro army” and Trump characterized his reference “extremely offensive”.
Since then, a lot has happened and lately France is not only talking about a Euro army, but it is also in the works. Its pillar will be the so-called alliance of European states willing to help Ukraine, in its rather futile attempt to resist Russia. An extremely complex undertaking, since after three generations of dependence of European defense on the US, de-dependence cannot be done overnight.
The irony of history is that France is the country that nearly 70 years ago torpedoed the European army, when in its Parliament an unholy alliance of Gauls and communists, in the name of national interests, rejected the proposal to create the European Defense Community. In any case, France is now taking the lead in Europe’s defense emancipation and is undertaking initiatives, such as sending a few days ago even a small group of European soldiers to Greenland, which, to the great disappointment of Donald Trump, finds the vast majority of European public opinion absolutely in agreement.
Donald Trump and his company (which includes Vladimir Putin) therefore know very well that in order to nullify the attempt to create an autonomous defense Europe, France must first “fall”. And for this to happen, the French Far Right, which hates the European Union and is admittedly on the verge of power, must win the 2027 presidential elections. Washington and Moscow are working publicly and underground in this direction by variously strengthening her party Lepen. The party president Jordan Bardella (who fortunately turned thirty years old) had the first table-dance at Trump’s inauguration, last year around this time, while – as Le Pen herself has admitted – her party has occasionally received not inconsiderable loans from Russian banks.
The “French answer” to Washington – Moscow
Certainly indicative of the turn things have taken, but also of the tensions that have been created, is the recent decision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to create an account on X under the title “French response”.
“The era of carefully worded statements denouncing foreign interference and disinformation targeting French interests is over” said a spokesman for the ministry. Thus, last Wednesday, when shortly after Donald Trump’s speech in Davos, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote to X: “Europe must discard the culture it has created over the last ten years or it will destroy itself,” the “French Answer” published a table under the title “Our culture” which showed that compared to the USA life expectancy in Europe is longer, the homicide rate is lower and the employment of women is more important.
On the same day, the French embassy in South Africa, commenting on the statements of the heads of a Russian diplomatic mission there that France illegally occupies the island of Mayotte, made the following post: “Hello, how are you today @EmbassyofRussia? For your information, Mayotte voted in 1974 to remain a territory of the French Republic. Do you know what referendum, elections and democracy are? They are probably words that sound strange to your ears.”
The “bad companies” of the Far Right
In the leading echelons of the Paris government, the belief is therefore firmly established that online attacks and disinformation campaigns will intensify until the presidential elections of 2027 with the aim of strengthening the Far Right as much as possible.
But, regardless of the misinformation, both the French and the European Far Right in general are facing a major problem: In recent years, far-right parties have completely identified with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, who are currently more or less the most hated political figures in the Old Continent. Let them be careful.
