Despite having been decided only the day before, the closed-door meeting, which took place at the Elysée Palace on Thursday, February 20, was lengthy and complex. President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister François Bayrou, and twelve members of parliamentary groups and political parties convened for four hours to discuss extremely sensitive geopolitical information ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recently, the US president and his administration have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy, upending the Russian-American rapprochement that has been going on since Trump’s return to the White House.
The US’ transatlantic allies in Europe are now fearing the worst as a result of this “sort of discharge given by the US to Russian aggression in Ukraine,” as former foreign and defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned on Wednesday, February 19. The goal of the government is to get French society ready for the beginning of a massive war effort that hasn’t been seen since 1945.
Read more: Dogs and Cats’: Discover what your pet is thinking at a new Paris exhibition
After a week that began with discussions with his European and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners, Macron’s task was to mobilize public opinion around the necessity of European security.
About The Author
