Sputnik spoke to former presidential candidate and Leader of the Republican Popular Union (Union populaire républicaine, UPR) François Asselineau to find out whether the creation of a European Army can become a factor weakening France itself.
"What lurks just under the surface is that it is understood by some indiscretions that it could lead to sharing the seat in the Security Council of France, which makes France a great power, and there is much talk that France could share this seat with Germany," he said, stressing that this turning point "would be a way to lower the international status of France".
Will French People Agree?
The recent proposal didn't appear in Emmanuel Macron's electoral program and "so he is pulling this rabbit out of the hat, without winning the support of the French on this case," President of the UPR continues. This proposal could mean that "France could also share its nuclear strike force with Germany…"
"All this is really undermining French influence and sovereignty."
READ MORE: French General Says Macron's 'European Army is a Utopia'
It is not the first proposal to have a European army put forward by different French leaders.
"It's been a topic for discussion for at least three decades and nothing ever comes of it. Why? Because just like any issue in the European Union, the national interests of member states are totally divergent. Mr. Macron makes no secret of the fact that this European army would serve to ensure a kind of European sovereignty, and would confront China and Russia. He made it clear in an interview with Europe 1, and he even named the USA as one of the countries the European Army is going to confront."
What about the Rest of Europe?
The French government has criticized the US President's "lack of decency"; for François Asselineau these "shocking tweets" of Donald Trump, deeming the idea of an EU Army "insulting", haven't gone unnoticed either.
"Mr. Macron gets involved in such operations without ever checking that the other EU member states — not only France and Germany, but the 28 EU countries, soon 27 when the British are out, fortunately for them — agree. So Mr. Macron acts as if the other countries are off the market," Mr. Asselineau says.
Why then does the French leader seem not to be aware of it, or pretend not to be aware of it?
"We can be 100% sure that the Baltic states, Poland and other Eastern European countries, not to mention Germany, won't agree to Macron's proposal to create a European army to confront the United States."
"Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union says that the common security and defense policy should be compatible with the common security and defense policy established within NATO, since NATO is mentioned in Article 42 as having primacy over any defense strategy. I think that Mr. Macron is a bit of a free electron and on this subject as on many others one has the impression that he speaks without knowing the heart of the problem; and his entourage is becoming more and more worried of that," François Asselineau stressed.
On 6 November, in an interview to Europe 1, Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of creating a "real European army", especially to contain Russia, which "has proved to be a threat."
Angela Merkel, for her part, supported Macron's idea, saying that the possible creation of a European army could show the world that war in Europe is impossible and "would complete NATO without ever calling into question the link" with the Alliance. In addition, the German Chancellor proposed to MEPs to set up a European security council "that would allow important decisions to be made more quickly."
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
