Macron urges EU to shun nationalism

■ Gets standing ovation for slamming rise of ‘ illiberal democracies’

Strasbourg, April 17: French President Emmanuel Macron issued a call to Europeans on Tuesday not to retreat into nationalism and warned that divisions between democracy and authoritarianism in Europe were becoming like a “civil war”.

“There seems to be a sort of European civil war, where our differences and sometimes our national egotisms can seem more important than presenting a united face to the world,” the 40year- old President said.

“There is a fascination with the illiberal and it’s growing all the time.”

Mr Macron’s impassioned speech to the European Parliament, meeting in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, urged European Union not to become a “generation of sleepwalkers” lured by the siren song of nationalism, but to build the union as a bulwark for liberal democracy against a disorderly and dangerous world.

“In the face of authoritarianism, the response is not authoritarian democracy but the authority of democracy,” Mr Macron said in a clear reference to the newly re- elected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and to Poland’s ruling party. “Selfish nationalism” is gaining ground, Mr Macron warned in his speech that set out his vision for sweeping EU reforms.

“I don’t want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers, I don’t want to belong to a generation that’s forgotten its own past,” he told MEPs in the eastern French city and added that he was concerned by the growing sense of “doubt” and divisions between eastern and western states.

“I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to obtain it. And I will not give in to any kind of

fixation on authoritarianism."

Mr Macron won a standing ovation from most lawmakers after condemning the rise of "illiberal democracies" even within the EU. Nationalist MEPs from Britain and elsewhere sat in silence, however.

Mr Macron's words were welcomed by European Commission chief JeanClaude Juncker, who told Parliament afterwards: "The true France is back."

Mr Juncker's deputy Frans Timmermans said it was a "call to arms to all of us who believe in European values."

Mr Macron's speech comes just days after the a n t i - i m m i g r a t i o n , eurosceptic Orban won a crushing re- election victory in Hungary. Mr Orban regularly clashes with Brussels and Warsaw, meanwhile, has been locked in conflict with the EU over its controversial court reforms.

Italy has also raised concerns in other capitals after anti- establishment and anti- immigration parties surged in elections in March.