According to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, two great threats loom over Europe: the end of abundance and the end of shared evidence. Although fundamentally focused on Europe, the message, considered the most serious from a European president since the Second World War, should be cause for reflection for everyone, especially for the Western world.
“We see a series of increasingly serious crises, and our destiny may be conditioned by having to permanently manage crises and emergencies,” says Macron. He refers to the “end of abundance”, drawn by him, among other features, with the end of bottomless liquidity, of low-priced raw materials, of products and technologies that are perpetually available and also at low prices.
From a political perspective, the President of France announces the end of “shared evidence” and notes that another reality is prevailing, characterized in his opinion as a “great upheaval, a radical change.” He not only warns about forms of conspiracy or demagoguery, but about the vulnerability of what is accepted as principles. “If anyone thought that democracy and human rights were the theological pillar of the international order, recent years have blown up some of the evidence. We are witnessing the rise of illiberal regimes, the consolidation and reinforcement of authoritarian regimes».
Macron is not the first to notice this, although perhaps he is the one who has done so in a clearer and more direct way. The same concern is present, although with different emphasis, in much of the European leadership and, increasingly, in the citizenry. The analyzes abound in the enumeration of conflicts, urgencies, threats, fears, factors of uncertainty. The strength of Europe, its unity and its technical capacity to respond have been called into question. Also the quality of its leadership, its capacity for interaction and unified position in the face of global problems. The welfare society is increasingly threatened by problems of energy, inflation, employment, the effects of environmental change. Appeals to realism or fit; however, they are not always well received. They frequently collide with false security or the disqualification of the threat.
The pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the still unforeseen dimensions of a war that worries everyone but has more direct effects for Europe, have changed the perspective of problems and priorities. Also the growing economic influence of China, now with signs of crises of different kinds: drought, environmental, real estate, economic growth, health, lack of purchasing power on the part of its inhabitants, controlled by a new autocrat. The very integration of Russia into world geopolitics requires a new vision, closer to the one that allowed the end of the Cold War, encouraged then by the recently deceased last president of the USSR and father of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev. Russia’s economic integration in the global economy, as a major exporter of energy, minerals and food, and also as a recipient of foreign direct investment, mainly from European multinational companies, has now become an unbalancing strategic factor, object, consequently, of a necessary and profound revision.
Macron’s call to the European leadership to defend democracy and “real equality of opportunity” reflects a vision that goes beyond the situation and affirms itself in substance. His call for unity with the French and his warning about the risks of “conspiracy, catastrophism or demagoguery” justify the presidential request to his ministers to speak very clearly to the population. It somehow recalls the “blood, sweat and tears” of Churchill, but, above all, it exemplifies the realistic and constructive message that is so necessary in a world in conflict and deeply agitated by changes that transcend statistics and substantially touch people’s lives. .
