Over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he would be willing to discuss using French nuclear warheads as a “credible European defense” against possible Russian threats. France has about 300 nuclear warheads and is the only nuclear power in the European Union (EU), according to a recent report.
"I am in favor of opening this debate, which has to include missile defense, long-range weapons firing, nuclear weapons for those who have it or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil," Macron said in an interview that was published on Saturday.
It is not the first time Macron has openly discussed using France’s nuclear weapons for EU defense. The French president first hinted at the possible move in 2020 and again in 2022.
"France will keep its specificity, but is ready to contribute more to the defense of European soil," he added. But Macron was heavily criticized by French opposition parties for his comments.
François-Xavier Bellamy, lead candidate from the rightwing Les Républicains party said that as head of state, one must “first learn to keep quiet about what is the head of our security model”. While the leftist France Unbowed’s group wrote that the comments were a “grave mistake” that dealt “a new blow to the credibility of France’s nuclear deterrent.”
The French president alarmed the EU last month when he announced his openness to ground operations in Ukraine, saying they might be required “at some point”. Macron has rapidly changed his stance on Russia over the past two years, and first warned that the West should not “humiliate” Moscow before fully supporting Ukraine.
Macron, who has been criticized for having a “fondness for disruptive grandstanding”, has been desperately seeking ways to be viewed as a dominant power both domestically and internationally.
Germany was reportedly spearheading a European anti-missile shield project using US and Israeli technology but France refused to joining the project because Macron was rumored to see such an act as overstepping his own role as a “strategic leader” for Europe, and would prefer for Germany to remain in their position as an “economic leader”.
Despite the disputes between Germany and France, Manafred Weber leader of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) and a member of the Bavarian CSU said that Europe should “take up Macron’s offer” in light of building “the European dimension of nuclear defense as a long-term goal.”