In Historic Speech, Macron Makes "Radical" Appeal For United States of Europe, Calls For "Military Intervention Force"
- In Historic Speech, Macron Makes “Radical” Appeal For United States of Europe, Calls For “Military Intervention Force”
by Tyler Durden, http://www.zerohedge.com/
Just two days after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a larger-than-expected 13% of the vote in Germany’s federal elections over the weekend – dealing a staggering defeat to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led coalition which suffered its worst electoral showing since 1949 – French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a lesson in contrasts when he gave what the Financial Times described as “the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro.”
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Speaking to students at the Sorbonne in Paris, Macron said that “the challenge is vital: the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone,” adding that “we need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”
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In other words, a United States of Europe.
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The dissonance between Macron’s words, and the expression of defiance by German voters, who elevated a right-wing party to Parliament for the first time since World War II, is remarkable considering the unprecedented showing of France’s own nationalist party, the Marine Le Pen-led National Front, in parliamentary elections earlier this year, according to the Financial Times.
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Put another way, while voters on the continent are expressing serious reservations about further integration, Macron is proposing that the EU develop a joint “military intervention force”, a shared military budget, and a common budget funded by aggregated tax receipts and supervised by a single finance minister, along the lines of what last week’s “State of the Union” speech by Jean-Claude Juncker proposed.
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“Among the French president’s numerous proposals were the creation of a “military intervention force” and a common military budget by 2020, a European agency to deal with counter-terrorism intelligence and another to drive “radical innovation” in the economy.
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Macron also proposed reviving talks about a financial-transaction tax and a stronger carbon-tax mechanism, while also proposing that every student in France learn to speak at least two foreign EU languages.
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read more.
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