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00:00You're watching France 24 and you've just been listening to the French president, Emmanuel
00:03Macron, as he gave that address to French ambassadors here in Paris, a very long address
00:09that lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.
00:10I was listening to that with Bertrand Besancenot, who is a former French ambassador.
00:15Bertrand, welcome.
00:16Thank you for being here with us on France 24.
00:18I'm assuming you've been to these kind of addresses before in your past career as an
00:22ambassador.
00:23What stood out for you the most and what President Macron had to say?
00:25Because there was a lot.
00:26There's a lot to unpack.
00:27You know, as usual, the president made a very brilliant presentation, very exhaustive.
00:33This is why it is so long.
00:36But he had a very clear message, which is to say there is a sense in our public opinion,
00:41but even elsewhere, of what he called defeatism, saying that, I would say, skepticism about
00:49the new international order, the situation in our country, economic or politically and
00:54other things.
00:55So he wants to say there is a kind of laisser-aller, giving the floor to what he called la pensée
01:04réactionnaire, that means the conservative thinking.
01:09And for that, his clear message is to say there is no fatality.
01:13We have to act.
01:15We have to be very active.
01:18And for this, France has different assets.
01:23He, of course, recalled our defense capacity, the Francophonie and other things, which is
01:32to say we have our own assets and we have to play them.
01:36Second element, Europe is seen sometimes as not being so effective.
01:43And he says, but the future of our country is with Europe.
01:48We have in the new international order to give a new impetus to the European construction
01:55because it is the best way to defend our own interests.
01:58And this is a very clear message.
02:02He said something about the next coming of President Trump as the new president, saying,
02:09I know that some people say, well, he will change everything, it won't be in our interest
02:14and so on.
02:15And his answer, President Macron's answer is to say, no, we have already worked with
02:21him and he will listen to us if we are strong.
02:26So this is the message I have to give.
02:29Let us be strong as French, as European.
02:33He says something interesting.
02:35And I think this is the most innovative part of his presentation, a very, very clear and
02:44strong message against, if I may say, the Russian threat.
02:49I must say, on other points, there is no big announcement.
02:54But on the Russian threat, he has been extremely clear and saying that it is our duty to defend
03:02Ukraine because it is not only defending Ukraine, it is defending our own values, our own interests.
03:09And on this, I must say, he has been particularly clear.
03:13And this is certainly the main message that I take.
03:17Right.
03:18Just to interject there, he did say the U.S. must convince Russia to come to the table
03:22with Ukraine, but he also said Ukraine must be realistic over territorial issues.
03:27I mean, it sounds like he's just demanding compromise.
03:29Well, he thinks that at the end of the day, and he said that there will be no immediate
03:35solution, clearly.
03:38But he said at the end of the day, Ukraine have to compromise and Russia will have to
03:44compromise as well, which means apparently in his mind that you might have some territorial
03:53concession.
03:54I don't know if he's thinking about Crimea, but maybe it is what he has in mind.
04:02I take another point.
04:04It was interesting also, this is new to say, we are too much frileux, I don't know, too
04:10much nervous, scared, scared in Africa.
04:15Africa is a continent which is dynamic, where we have interest.
04:21We have to renew our approach of Africa, but we have to be less frileux with Africa.
04:29Yeah, it was interesting, too.
04:31He had quite strong words for Africa, saying that he basically didn't get a thank you after
04:36the French soldiers had been there for so many years.
04:38That was quite surprising.
04:39I know, but I think he's right to recall, because sometimes you can see that he's fed
04:45up because many of our soldiers lost their life there.
04:50And of course, it was in support of the government against the terrorist threat.
04:56And he's convinced, as many are, that without this intervention, we would have a very different
05:03situation with the Daesh in Africa.
05:08So this is why he wants to say we didn't get a thank, and I regret it.
05:14I think it is a message to the African as well.
05:17We want to renovate, but don't criticize us as we didn't do anything there.
05:24Of course, this coming after many African leaders asked French soldiers to leave.
05:28Yes, exactly.
05:30And the last point is a very strong call in favor of the democratic values and universalism.
05:38Clearly, he thinks that too many people think that now we had dreams.
05:46Now clearly the conservative government thinks that they are more efficient.
05:55And many people in our countries, which are skeptical about the situation, say, let us
06:01see what it is.
06:02Well, it is, of course, a strong message also to say, no, the democratic government, our
06:08values are the best and are the most effective.
06:12We could see that during the Covid crisis.
06:16And we have to keep, we have to defend, we have to defend multilateralism.
06:21And I think this was very clear.
06:24We know that in his mind, Europe and democracy and universalism are the main priorities that
06:32has to be defended.
06:33Just a quick word before you go on climate, which was one of his final points.
06:37I mean, basically saying we haven't been strong enough.
06:40Yes.
06:41Well, this is I'm not sure there is something new.
06:44It is clear that we have been active on this fight and he wanted to recall because many
06:48people say, oh, well, let us go with more oil, more.
06:54We are hearing criticism coming from the South on that.
06:58So let us be less enthusiastic about the, about the, I don't know how you call that,
07:08but the climate change and all that.
07:13So he thinks that and even for our own interest, having less carbon is better for our economy
07:19as well.
07:20Thank you so much, Bertrand Besancenot for coming in and watching that speech with us
07:23and for giving us your analysis.
07:24You're a former ambassador.
07:25Thank you so much.
07:26Thank you very much.
07:27My pleasure.