FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris averts its gaze from NATO to absorb itself in domestic politics. Le Monde, which typically covers the Alliance with sustained attention, devotes its main coverage to a regional PACA candidacy — a local political story unrelated to the Atlantic crisis. This disconnect is itself revealing: France, which has always had an ambivalent relationship with NATO (de Gaulle's withdrawal in 1966, Sarkozy's reintegration in 2009), seems unwilling to weigh in on Trump's threat. This silence can be read as a calculation: Paris has pushed for autonomous European defense for years, and an American withdrawal from NATO — however destabilizing — would finally force Europeans to build what Macron has called 'strategic autonomy' since 2017. France has no interest in begging Washington to stay — it has interest in preparing for what comes after.