A Long Goodbye to the French Europe

Since the mid-1990s, France’s discourse on Europe has been ambiguous between support for the idea of further European integration and the defence of France’s status in Europe and the world. This chapter discusses how this discourse relates to France’s traditional narrative of Europe puissance, which captures the idea that France will be strong in a strong Europe. It looks at changing emphases in the narrative and considers three EU-related discourses that have developed more recently. It then reflects on the extent to which the discourse adopted by President Emmanuel Macron represents a departure (or not) from the traditional narrative.