Has France become a new American State?

“France is a new American state.” Yes, this is the appropriate description for Paris’s policy over the last two decades, from the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy to the current President, Emmanuel Macron, as France has lost every policy initiative in foreign relations and become merely a follower and obedient to Washington’s initiatives. This has only worsened after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October, 2023.

Since WWII, France, under presidents such as Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac, carved out a special place for itself in international relations. Despite its affiliation to the West, it has always kept its distance from the policies pursued by the Anglo-Saxon countries, especially the US, and preferred to distinguish itself through independent decisions that have caused it major problems with its Western partners.

France enjoyed great respect during the presidency of Jacques Chirac, especially in the Iraq war, when its then Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, stood in the Security Council in mid-February 2003 against Washington and London and denied that Iraq had a relationship with Al-Qaeda or possessed chemical weapons, rejecting war on this Arab country. He warned that “premature recourse to the military option would be fraught with risks (…) such intervention could have incalculable consequences for the stability of this scarred and fragile region.” The world saw the truth of this warning when Iraq was destroyed and a million of its people were killed, along with the emergence of armed and terrorist groups from it, thus putting the Middle East in one of the worst periods of its modern history.

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It also gained the respect of the Palestinians, because Paris’s position was that Israel’s security was linked to the rights of the Palestinians, and Chirac raised this slogan throughout his political career, especially when he was first a minister and then president of the Republic. However, official France began to slip away from its independence towards engaging in support of American and Israeli policy in a noticeable manner, which began since Nicolas Sarkozy took office in the country. He was a Zionist in his positions. The country then moved to a phase of silent retreat during the presidency of Francois Hollande, while Emmanuel Macron appears as if he is a member of the Likud Party and not the head of a European country. The French press, including Le Monde, is reporting how concern has prevailed within French diplomacy and intelligence circles regarding Macron’s policy that is involved in the plans of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, they see how France is losing all its credibility with the Arab nations, and even with part of the world, and the terrorist acts that may result from these positions in the future against French interests. Diplomacy and intelligence experts in Paris highlight that France’s position should have been in defence of a truce and ceasefire, instead of supporting a war that took the course of genocide. However, President Macron decided to adopt different positions. Who would have thought he would call for an international coalition to confront Hamas, similar to the coalition to confront Daesh, despite the difference in the political and historical context. This position indicates his contempt for French diplomatic and intelligence history, as diplomacy and intelligence insist on the need for Paris to play the role of a mediator and interlocutor between the West and the Palestinians. Who would have thought that he would back down in silence after a warning from Israel that his statements to Britain’s BBC channel regarding the need to avoid civilian casualties were inappropriate, when Macron witnessed how Israel barbarically bombed hospitals and schools? Who would have thought that the President of France, which defends secularism, would, on the eve of the National Secularism Day (last Thursday) celebrated in accordance with law 1905, allow the lighting of a menorah (candelabrum) for the Jewish Festival of Lights (Hanukkah) in the middle of the Elysse Palace, in memory of the settlers who died in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, ignoring the killing of more than 18,000 thousand Palestinians, the majority of whom were children. Political analyst, Jean-Pierre Perrin, commented that the time was not appropriate for such a celebration, noting that “the principle of separation between religion and politics in France is very sacred, and must not be violated and has no exceptions, whatever the circumstances.”

The truth of the matter is that Macron’s actions are not surprising, as he is a President who lacks deep political maturity. He has lost France’s diplomatic heritage, and he did not even hesitate in what French experts consider to be a betrayal of his country when, in 2014, while he was a minister in Francois Hollande’s government, he sold the American company, General Electric’s the energy subsidiary of the French company, Alstom. It is the company that manufactures nuclear submarine turbines and sensitive parts in the nuclear industry and has now become a hostage of American policy. He also sold French data to American companies, and these files are under the eyes of the judiciary. Talking about France’s decline at the international level means talking about the weakness of the presidents who governed the republic from Sarkozy to Macron, and they seemed like a cheap political marketing product, as Paris lacked stability with them in its vision of many world issues. The main concern of these presidents became pleasing the US, after it grew very angry with Paris because of Jacques Chirac’s position on the Iraq war. Although these presidents spoke about the need to strengthen France’s role and the role of the EU on the global political scene, they implemented the opposite policy. French officials, including former Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, and Director of Foreign Intelligence, Alain Juppe, express their disappointment in France’s decline and its subservience to the US and they believe enough is enough with the current President Macron. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say it is as if Macron is a member of the Israeli Likud Party or has made France a “new American state”, this time in the heart of Europe.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Al-Quds on 11 December, 2023.

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