Emmanuel Macron will make a televised address to France on Wednesday night as he tries to calm voters’ concerns over Donald Trump upending the international order and EU leaders prepare for a special summit on defence.
Macron’s pre-recorded speech on primetime TV will address the Ukraine crisis, European security and the threat of a transatlantic trade war after Trump paused US support to Ukraine and also threatened to slap tariffs on goods from the EU, following on from levies imposed on China, Mexico and Canada.
The president’s words will be aiming to calm “anxiety” among the French public, an official said, and he will discuss what the 27-nation EU and allies such as Britain can do together to bolster European security and secure a “fair and lasting” peace in Ukraine. But Macron will also stress that the US remains an ally and that Europe needs it to help defend Ukraine.
The Brussels summit will see the Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelenskyy, join the 27 EU leaders in person.
European leaders are stepping up diplomatic efforts after Trump ordered a pause on all critical US military aid for Ukraine against Russia, three years into the invasion, after an explosive public confrontation in the Oval Office last week with Zelenskyy.
“Europe is at a turning point in its history,” Sophie Primas, a French government spokesperson, said on Wednesday. “Our continent has not known a situation so serious and unstable since the end of the second world war.”
She said: “We’re entering a new era, and we all need to get involved. Europe is strong. We must reinforce our defence and invest more in our security.”
She added that France was working on re-establishing ties between the US and Ukraine to achieve a “lasting and robust peace”.
After his speech on Wednesday, Macron will host the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for a working-dinner at the Élysée Palace amid intense preparations for Thursday’s EU summit on defence and support for Ukraine.
EU leaders are contemplating the stark prospect of the US withdrawing longer-term support from Kyiv and more broadly from its European allies. The summit will discuss a massive boost in European defence spending to make up for the expected dwindling of transatlantic support under Trump. Alongside the Ukraine crisis, EU leaders will discuss a proposal by the European Commission to borrow up to €150bn to lend to member states under a rearmament plan.
Consensus on all these issues is not straightforward. Orbán is an admirer not only of Trump but also Putin, and has repeatedly broken a united EU front on Ukraine. The Hungarian leader – one of Trump’s and Moscow’s closest allies in the EU – said earlier this week that a “transatlantic rift” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had become apparent over recent days.
He told a briefing: “There is a clear strategic difference, which the US presidential election has made unbridgeable … Some want war and some want peace. This is the challenge we will have to face on Thursday.” He said he would have to face that challenge as early as Wednesday, in an apparent reference to his planned dinner with Macron.
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He accused European leaders, who met in London over the weekend to support Kyiv, of having decided “that the war in Ukraine must continue”.
An Élysée official said France was “inclusive” and “speaking to everyone” and viewed Thursday’s summit as “a new moment in the consolidation of European unity”.
The official said France would press “the necessity that Ukraine is fully associated with any discussion on its future. That is obvious, but it has to be remembered, respected and fully taken into account.”
Macron, whose popularity had dropped during a domestic political crisis prompted by him calling snap elections, appears to be experiencing a slight increase in support among voters, amid Ukraine diplomacy and the first steps of the Trump administration. One poll, after Macron’s recent visit to Washington, showed an improvement in his confidence ratings among French voters.
But the push to increase French defence spending is coinciding with government struggles to reduce the budget deficit.