President Emmanuel Macron inspects a French warship. Photo: Eric Gaillard/AP
Europe's most powerful military resource has arrived in Malmö, sailing on a wave of newfound self-confidence.
Reality has forced an unpleasant thought in many quarters:
Perhaps France was right – after all.
Europe must become more independent from the United States.
More and more people agree on that.
Much of the project will rest heavily on France. Its military power, defense industry and, not least, its nuclear weapons.
But France's increased military importance is not even the most important thing that recent years have brought.
France's entire view of the world has a significant tailwind.
France has always had a special role in Europe. Pretentious, and depending on who you ask, headstrong or downright troublesome.
While others have invested everything in free trade and international institutions, France has never completely abandoned its narrow self-interest, the protection of its own industry and a clear focus on national independence.
Now time seems to have caught up with France. Or perhaps it has retreated to where France has always stood.
The Covid pandemic. The war in Ukraine. China's trade policy. Donald Trump's tariffs.
When President Emmanuel Macron started talking about "strategic autonomy" for Europe in 2017, interest was limited - it sounded very much like the kind of thing France has always been fussing about - but now almost all European leaders are talking in the same terms.
More and more people agree that a number of sectors cannot be left to the free market to solve, but require special efforts.
This applies to the defense industry. Information technology. Energy. Critical minerals, not least rare earth metals.
In other words, what France has always thought.
Rafale M fighter aircraft parked on the flight deck of the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle in Malmö on Wednesday. Photo: Krister Hansson
The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is in itself a 261.5-meter-long argument for the newfound relevance of the French choices:
It is not only the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside the United States. It is also the only one in NATO that nuclear-armed aircraft can take off from. Planes that are also built in France, with nuclear weapons that – unlike Britain’s – are completely independently developed.
But the war over the agenda is hardly won for that.
As Europe is now set to rapidly rearm, one of the biggest battles is over how to do it.
France wants everyone to buy as much European weapons as possible. Not least to reduce dependence on the United States.
It is impossible, say people in government buildings in Paris, to justify sky-high defense spending to voters if all the money is going abroad. It must provide jobs and growth at home.
But not all countries have as large or as state-owned a defense industry as France. “Buying European” often appears as a thinly veiled paraphrase of “buying French.”
Moreover, critics say, France only talks about strategic autonomy when it suits the country’s own interests.
The aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle on a visit to Malmö. Photo: Krister Hansson
The EU's trade agreement with South America, the Mercosur agreement, which is highlighted by many politicians as a way for the EU to make itself less dependent on the US, has been dismissed by Macron as a "bad deal".
Not everyone is convinced that state interference and distorted competition are the way to the desired result.
France is now showing great security policy interest in our region.
That is good and necessary.
But all Swedish decision-makers must at least keep in mind a fundamental strategic insight:
In a world that has already been almost shaken to pieces by "America first", there is a limit to how safely one can rely on countries that always put national interests first.
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