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Macron warns of ‘crisis of democracies’, including in the US

the french president Emmanuel Macron warned of a “crisis of democracies”, including in the United States, after years of “pressure” and “destabilization” efforts in an exclusive US interview with Jake Tapper of CNN this Thursday (22).

Asked by Tapper if he is concerned about American democracy, Macron replied: “I care about all of us.”

“I hate to lecture people and say, ‘I’m worried about you’… But I believe what’s at stake is what we built in the 18th century,” Macron said in an interview.

The French leader warned of a global crisis of Western “liberal democracies” when asked by Tapper about the trend of nationalism, populism and racism spreading across Europe and the US.

“I think we have a great crisis of democracies, of what I would call liberal democracies. Let’s be clear about this. Because? First, because being open societies and open and very cooperative democracies put pressure on their people. This could destabilize them,” Macron said.

“And that’s why we always have to articulate respect for people’s will, middle class references and all the progress of our democracies by welcoming different cultures, being open and cooperative. It’s a matter of balance,” he continued.

“It is clear that in recent years we have had increasing pressure on our societies and we are at the point where, in our different countries, there is what I would call a middle class crisis.”

Macron also said that social media is playing a “very important role for what is at stake in our democracy” – “for better and for worse”. He said social platforms have been a driver of “fake news” and “new relativism”, which he called “a killer for all democracies, because it is completely breaking the relationship with truth and science, and the basis of our democracy itself. ”

Macron’s comments echo President Joe Biden’s sweeping effort to frame 21st century global competition as defined by democracies versus autocracies. Those warnings have gained new weight in recent months as fears of a global recession loom and threats to democracy mount alongside Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens, a move that threatens to escalate his faltering invasion of Ukraine after a series of defeats that have drawn recriminations in Moscow.

Putin said in a speech that he would use “all means at our disposal” and even raised the specter of nuclear weapons if he considered Russia’s “territorial integrity” threatened.

The mobilization means that citizens who are on reserve can be called up, and those with military experience will be subject to conscription, Putin said, adding that the necessary decree had already been signed and went into effect on Wednesday.

Macron called the decision a “mistake” and a missed opportunity to “go on a path towards peace”.

“A few months ago, Vladimir Putin conveyed a message: ‘I was attacked by NATO, they triggered the situation and I just reacted’. It is now clear to everyone that the leader who decided to go to war, the leader who decided to escalate is President Putin,” Macron said.

“And I have no rational explanation,” he added, calling the invasion a “German intervention strategy” and a “post-Covid-19 consequence” because of Putin’s isolation during the pandemic.

Macron was re-elected in April with a proposal to voters of a globalized and economically liberal France at the head of a strengthened European Union.

But the performance of his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, served as the latest indication that the French public is turning to extremist politicians to express their dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Source: CNN Brasil

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