Emmanuel Macron Makes the Case for a Stronger Europe, in a Bid to Lead It

Europe might have a new leader to replace Germany’s Angela Merkel, if French President Emmanuel Macron gets his way. With the German Chancellor holed up in Berlin, attempting to piece together a coalition after an underwhelming election victory on Sunday, Macron strode forcefully into the gap on Tuesday afternoon, unveiling a dramatic new plan to overhaul the 28-member European Union, a role that French leaders have for years largely ceded to Germany. In a key two-hour speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Macron laid out a detailed blueprint for how to overhaul the E.U., including knitting the continent together far more closely, with joint military interventions and intelligence sharing. He called for Europe-wide rules on energy, climate change, and financial transaction taxes, and for it to up aid for Africa and the Middle East, in an effort to stop the mammoth influx of migrants sneaking across the Mediterranean. “We have been wasting our time in a European civil war of words,” Macron said, in his most impassioned speech since winning the presidency last May. “We should be thinking of a way to build a stronger Europe.” Evidently, Macron sees a prized moment to remake Europe according to his own vision. For weeks, he had said he would wait until after the Germany elections last Sunday to announce his E.U. plan, since the French-German partnership is regarded as key to shaping the union. But when it became clear Merkel faced difficult c...
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