Emmanuel de Gaulle?

On Tuesday, November 9, US Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in France for a five-day visit.

Its mission is very serious - to bring France back into American embrace.

And France is offended in earnest.

Here the American-French rift cannot be repaired with a swoop.

The five-day stay of the US Vice President in Paris suggests that the visit bears the highest status, as well as an understanding of offended French pride and the American willingness to "fix and fix everything."

Let's try to figure out why Kamala Harris flew in, why exactly she and what her delicate and important "French mission" is.

I'll start with a reminder that two months ago, Paris entered the most serious clinch with Washington in decades, the reason for which was the contract for 12 Australian submarines seized by Biden from France (the amount of the contract "during the journey" grew from $ 55 billion to $ 65 billion) signed by the French Naval Construction Authority, later renamed the Naval Group, with Australia back in 2016. 

Two French presidents have already come to Australia (first Hollande, then Macron), ministers and heads of two presidential administrations. 

Five years ago, the Australians allegedly underestimated the "Chinese threat" and therefore ordered the French a technically complex contract: instead of nuclear submarines, which were built and supplied by France, they wanted "traditional engines."

That is, the French needed to change the "stuffing".

And suddenly, when Biden replaces Trump in the White House, the Americans turn everything upside down. 

The new American concept of the "Chinese threat" also identified the place of a future possible conflict - Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region, where Australia is to become an outpost of the Anglo-Saxon-Chinese confrontation on the continent. 

And for this, according to the United States, it needs nuclear submarines.

Which, in their opinion, should be built by the Anglo-Saxons and no one else.

Yes, the Americans have divided the huge contract taken from the French (signed) for the nuclear Australian fleet between themselves and the UK (to the delight of Boris Johnson, who brought Britain out of the EU with Brexit).

• Reuters

• © Alastair Grant

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Bone called Boris Johnson's victory a victory for the globalists (Global Britain) and "Britain's return to the American fold."

Before a four-day trip to the United States, the new British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, whom Clement Bon calls the ambassador "in charge of delivering the message that Britain has returned to American vassalage," published a column in the Sunday Telegraph, in which she noted AUKUS as "the return of Global Britain to the world stage ”.

In general, French self-esteem was offended by the Anglo-Saxon slap in the face in front of the whole world. 

For France was not only taken away from a very serious contract for the construction of submarines, but - yes, yes!

- at the same time, the United States (together with Great Britain and Australia) announced the creation of a new geopolitical union AUKUS - according to the first letters of the three Anglo-Saxon states, the purpose of which is to counter the "Chinese threat".

"But what about us ?!"

- exclaimed the proud French.

The loudest thunders and lightning thundered were French President Emmanuel Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, one of the main lobbyists of the French military-industrial complex, who in recent years has made France one of the three most progressive arms exporters in the world.

I wrote about this in more detail in the column “France crossed the red line”.

"The fifth wheel of the cart", "the eternal opportunism of the British" - what epithets did not spare Britain in the evening news release on France 2 by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on September 18, 2021.

A scheduled meeting between French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parley and her British counterpart Ben Wallace was immediately canceled.

France recalled its ambassadors in Canberra and Washington, and the entire strategic-analytical machine of the Fifth Republic began to look for a way out, a new geopolitical path, abruptly cutting off cooperation with Australia and announcing that it would not be easy to endure such an insult from the United States either.

(True, it was elegantly, in French, emphasizing that the Biden administration could "soften the blow" - offer France compensation or involve it in a project of a similar scale.)

The French raged for two months. 

Their fury and pride in Washington could not ignore: France is still one of the EU leaders, a former colonial power active in Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region.

France is among the world leaders in the nuclear industry, the world's leading exporter of weapons. 

Moreover, at the beginning of 2022, France becomes the EU Presidency.

And, most importantly, there will be presidential elections in France in 2022.

And an extremely sensitive question: who can win them, what foreign policy course will Paris take, with whom will it create new geopolitical alliances, so angry with Washington?

It was Macron who spoke out loud about the "death of the NATO brain."

But the most powerful blow, as they say, in the gut, the French inflicted on Biden's climate agenda, with which the current administration of the White House is worn like a written sack. 

Instead of wind turbines and solar panels, which the current green energy companies from the US Democratic Party are snatching around the world, Macron and his hawkish administration decided to reduce the notorious carbon dioxide emissions in an original way, which has already been announced to the nations and the world: France will resume the construction of nuclear reactors.

Yes, the French are not accommodating Arabs who, in order not to anger Washington, are ready to buy any technology and goods imposed by them - from weapons to countless divisions of solar panels. 

Ok, they said, the French, reduce so reduce. 

In October - November, a serious information campaign began in the French media, explaining what an expensive pleasure it is - seemingly harmless wind turbines.

The shocking documentary Wind Turbines: From Dream to Reality was watched on YouTube by almost half a million French people before it was shown on W9, and almost all French media were involved in the discussion of the film.

“Recent events have challenged us,” says Charles Timon, the film's author.

"Our film was made to expose the deception behind the energy craze, which the Audit Office has already reported cost our taxpayers € 120 billion to provide just 8% of our national electricity needs."

The French love to count money, and when they were told - literally on a calculator - the difference in the price of wind and nuclear electricity, they got very angry.

Wind turbines only look innocent, like in the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, but in fact they literally ruin the economies of countries and the pockets of ordinary payers.

At this very time, the popular politician Stefan Bern rebelled against the devastation of the landscape by the "wind dictate".

“93% of the electricity generated in France is carbon-free, and nuclear and hydraulic systems do not emit greenhouse gases,” writes journalist Geraldine Wessner. 

Checkmate, comrade Biden! 

In the already begun, in fact, presidential campaign, French President Emmanuel Macron made a televised address to the nation, stating that for the first time in decades, France will restart the construction of nuclear reactors in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (as asked in the White House) and - attention!

- to achieve 

. 

By the way, France started building nuclear power plants in the 1970s, starting from scratch and building 58 nuclear reactors in less than 15 years (today becoming one of the world leaders in the industry).

So, with the will and political will, Macron's application is by no means a bluff.

At the same time, the government froze gas prices and announced gas subsidies for those French citizens whose monthly income is below € 2 thousand per month. 

In general, Emmanuel Macron is seriously preparing for the presidential elections and hopes to win them.

Despite the fact that neither he nor his foreign minister was stingy with words addressed to the United States and Great Britain, the paradox is that among all serious candidates, the current president is the one who won the elections in 2017 as a Euro-optimist and partly a globalist. 

Almost all presidential candidates strive to wear de Gaulle's cap on themselves - 2022. The French media write that there has never been such a crowd of political candidates at the cemetery in Colombes-les-Deus-Eglise, at the grave of Charles de Gaulle.

All came to honor the memory of the anniversary (albeit not a round one) of the death of the founder of the Fifth Republic.

It was very exciting to follow the French press during those two months.

On September 18, 2021, one of the most influential political weeklies, Le Point, published a “programmatic” article, practically a new foreign policy manifesto of the French Republic:

.

It details the essence of the American-British-Australian betrayal.

And a beautiful conclusion follows: “So what should France do?

It must acknowledge this new reality - to expect nothing from the United States, regardless of who its president is, other than respect for NATO.

And try to create a real European policy, return to your roots - Gaullism. "

And after a moment's pause, breathe Moliere's way, admiring the effect produced: “The collapse of the Soviet bloc made cooperation with the only remaining superpower inevitable. But the return of the great powers allows France to regain its role as mediator and mediator. Moreover, China does not pose such a threat to European security as the USSR. De Gaulle knew how to be a good ally without being a supporter of unity. It's not about becoming anti-American, it's about staying independent. The era of American supremacy is coming to an end. French foreign policy was able to reach a turning point in its time by adapting to the new reality. A renewed Gaullism must create new alliances, taking into account our European commitments, national independence and our unique voice. "

On October 28, the magazine came out with a cover dedicated to General de Gaulle.

The French, in order to troll Washington, not only dedicated their number to Gaullism as a phenomenon of French politics, but also dressed up all the presidential candidates in 2022 in a branded general's trench coat and cap.

So here you are, they say, de Gaulles with anti-Americanism in our bulk, so it will not seem a little!

I will just remind you that in the last Constitution of the Fifth Republic, adopted by a referendum in 1958, the rights of the president were noticeably expanded, and Charles de Gaulle himself actually became the "leader of the nation", restoring the "greatness of France" through an independent 

policy. 

He eliminated US military bases, withdrew France from NATO in 1966 (in the first days after the shock of the canceled deal on submarines, Macron also publicly stated that France should think about leaving the Atlantic alliance after this) and announced rapprochement with the USSR, in including signing an agreement on scientific relations. 

And Macron - or another new "de Gaulle" who may come in the elections in 2022 - has two alternatives to the Americans instead of the USSR: both China and Russia.

Scare so scare!

But if not Macron, then how do you, for example, journalist Eric Zemmour, a French Jew who looks like both Charles Aznavour and poet and singer Serge Gainsbourg, whom the press has already dubbed "French Trump"?

Zemmur is a supporter of rapprochement with Russia, and sociologists predict his passage to the second round of the presidential elections - 2022, together with Emmanuel Macron.

The press that supports Macron so often calls him "our Trump" that they do not intend to wait for the second round and take a cordial in the White House, from where they just smoked the real Trump.

That is why Kamala Harris is in Paris today, where plus 12 is green, rainy and poetic.

Its official program includes participation in the ceremonies on November 11, the Paris Peace Forum, and a conference on Libya.

Her visit is a continuation of the reconciliation launched at the end of October on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome by President Biden.

• AFP

“A few days ago, we had a fruitful meeting in Rome with President Biden, who showed the 

,” said Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of the meeting, addressing Harris.

"The French are very proud to have you here."

Since the crisis with Australian submarines and the announcement of the creation of AUKUS, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and the president himself have tried to settle the conflict with the French. 

But let's be honest: who, if not the charming Kamala Harris, can calm the French and convince them to make peace?

Well, it is obvious that the heavy artillery of female charm should work for the obstinate French, and not the 78-year-old president, with all due respect to him.

On November 10, Kamala Harris made a press statement in Paris that "France and the United States are at the beginning of a new era and cooperation is critical."

I would like to note that during this two-month crisis window, the heavyweights of French diplomacy criticized Macron for his fervor.

For example, Michel Duclos, a former French ambassador to Syria, an influential analyst at the French Foreign Ministry and a special adviser to the Montaigne Institute, noted: “A break with America will not solve our problems. President Macron has had incredible success in Africa, in this regard, he surpassed all of his predecessors. But he also had many failures: he did not receive anything from Trump, nothing from Putin, there was no miracle either in Syria or in Iran, the sentence against the Sahel and, possibly, Lebanon has been suspended and has not yet been resolved. To proclaim the brain death of the Atlantic Alliance and initiate a unilateral opening of relations with Russia is to risk cutting off European partners from oneself and undermining Washington's confidence in itself. "

So the wise and influential patrons of Emmanuel Macron (Foreign Minister, who is also a former defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian is almost always present at Macron's meetings with Harris) were able to stop his inexorable slide towards Gaullism. 

“Based on your conversation with President Biden, I welcome the fact that in the coming days we will continue to work together and renew the focus on our partnership,” Ms Harris said to the French President.

Well, the stakes for re-election from Emmanuel Macron with the support of the United States are growing significantly - both Russia, Iran, and China must understand this.

In the meantime, we will try to guess what the Biden administration will offer the French as compensation for the Australian contract they lost.

I will make a cautious assumption that this can be a serious project specifically for the flagships of the French economy: the military-industrial complex or the nuclear industry. 

And in the concept of "pulling France out" of possible alliances with Russia, it is possible that this alternative to Australian submarines will confront France with Russian interests.

After all, it is quite clear that Kamala Harris' charming smile alone is not enough.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.