Macron's warning in Germany: Russia may be here tomorrow

Ukraine, Russia, European defence: the most pressing issues of the conflict held centre stage in Emmanuel Macron's speech at the European Youth Festival in front of the Frauenkirche in Dresden. This was the highlight of the French president's second day in Germany, his first state visit with full ceremonial honours since Jacques Chirac's in 2000.

"We Europeans are not making war on Russia or the Russian people," Macron , the first French president to return to East Germany since 1989, said in Dresden. He added, however, that 'we will continue to help Ukraine defend itself as long as necessary', because 'an authoritarian and revisionist regime like Moscow's cannot be allowed to threaten Europe'. For the French president, in fact, 'even Germany and France would no longer be safe if the law of the strongest prevails in Ukraine' and 'Russia could be here tomorrow'. 'Peace', he reiterated, 'cannot be the capitulation of Kiev'.

In his speech, in which he spoke at times in German, Macron took up several topics also touched on in his recent speech at the Sorbonne, from European defence - for which, he said, a 'Copernican revolution' and a 'doubled budget' were needed, including the option of 'common debts' - to China, to the electoral challenge posed by the advance of the right-wing.

On Tuesday, the French president will travel to Muenster but, above all, to Meseberg Castle, the residence that the German government has traditionally reserved for special events with international guests since 2007.

Here Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (with government delegations) will discuss various dossiers, starting with the strengthening of air defence where, according to sources quoted by the Bloomberg agency, the addition of a defence system could be considered to complement the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), promoted by Germany and supported by 21 countries, which uses Israeli Arrow 3 and US Patriot missiles. France, which with Italy has developed the system known as SAMP-T, has so far not supported ESSI, emphasising that a European solution would be preferable.