PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron from France and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from Austria stood side by side on Tuesday to talk about terrorism at the Élysée Palace, but right now every leader was about domestic politics as well as terrorist threats.
France and Austria were both recently attacked: Vienna last week with the fatal shooting of four people by a sympathizer of the Islamic State and France with the stabbing death of three in Nice and the beheading of a teacher in the Paris suburbs. And Mr Macron in particular has sought allies in the face of hostility in the Muslim world towards the sweeping action his government has taken in response.
Facing a re-election campaign in 2022, in which his opponent is likely to be far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the French president has every interest in flexing his anti-terrorism muscles in public until he appears with Mr Kurz. who ruled in a coalition with the allies of Mrs. Le Pen on the far right in Austria until last year.
“Given the emotions that have been generated, he feels he has to prove to the French that he is doing what he can,” said Dominique Moïsi, special advisor on geopolitics at the think tank of the Montaigne Institute in Paris, of Mr Macron. “Even beyond his political comfort zone” by performing with Mr. Kurz.
And Mr Kurz, who is now in a coalition with the Greens and is looking for more seriousness, benefits from being seen in public shoulder to shoulder with a respected member of the core group of leaders of the European Union.
The meeting of the two heads of state and government on Tuesday was followed by a Europe-wide video conference on terrorism with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The meeting sparked some tough talk about strengthening borders and stepping up cross-border policing, but according to some who examined the two men, the French and Austrian leaders were more concerned with symbols than substance.
Mr Macron’s political standing, damaged by his government’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic, is now benefiting from public outrage and nationalism following the murders. He also sees an upsurge in what French commentators and politicians have suggested, anger over the inappropriately focusing foreign observers on the country’s treatment of the Muslim population.
“Macron is clearly sticking to the dynamic. The fight against terrorism has not hurt anyone, “said François Heisbourg, a French defense analyst, although” I honestly don’t think most French have heard of Kurz “.
According to analysts, the political ramifications of Tuesday’s meeting were clear.
“In a way, it’s a direct response to Marine Le Pen,” said Moïsi of the Montaigne Institute. “He’s already in the campaign and has only one opponent. He proves to those who vote for them, you don’t have to vote for them, you can vote for me. It is immediately a political tactic and, in the long run, a global strategy. “
Mr Kurz had similar domestic goals in mind and was aware that he would have to take a hard line in order to mobilize voters who might move to the far-right Freedom Party, with which he ruled in a previous coalition.
“For Kurz, this alliance with Macron is useful in three ways,” said Christoph Hofinger, director of the SORA Institute, a social research group in Vienna. “He can show that he has European recognition, he can show that he is tough on political Islam, and the whole thing distracts from the embarrassingly missed warnings about the recent attack in Vienna.”
He added, “It’s less about convincing Macron of anything than creating the impression of being a leading voice in Europe.”
In brief remarks on Tuesday, Mr Macron, following his meeting with Mr Kurz and the other European leaders, carefully addressed issues dear to Ms. Le Pen’s party. “This threat affects all countries in Europe,” he told reporters that the continent’s external border outside the so-called Schengen zone, which includes most of the European countries, must be tightened.
“Security weakness at the border is a risk for all of our member states,” said Macron. “There has to be a re-establishment of the Schengen zone,” he added, “so that it becomes a safe space.”
Mr Macron insisted that “we need to examine clearly the link between illegal immigration and terrorism”, alluding to the suspect’s apparent illegal boat entry into Italy by the suspect in the Nice murders.
Mr. Kurz immediately took action on Tuesday. “We cannot live in freedom without protecting our external borders,” said the Austrian Chancellor. “We are faced with a permanent threat.”
Mrs. Merkel was the only leader who sounded a mitigating note. “This is not a battle between Islam and Christianity,” said the German Chancellor. “It’s about defending our model of a democratic society.”
Before Mr Macron spoke, Ms. Le Pen’s National Rally Party issued a statement Tuesday calling for the abandonment of the Schengen zone and the restoration of national borders – a right-wing French rally for years. This would eliminate a signature service of the European Union, border-free travel. Mr Macron hasn’t gone that far, despite last week announcing a doubling of French border guards.
Ms Le Pen’s party was confused by Mr Macron’s statements. “He does not understand the threat we are facing,” Philippe Olivier, a close advisor to the far-right leader, said in an interview after Mr Macron spoke.
“We are at war and we are implementing a law of war in the face of war,” said Olivier, adding that Mr Macron’s pledges to rethink the Schengen area and regulate hate speech on social networks were useless in the fight against terrorism .
Mr Macron touched on another far right issue, the abuse of asylum applications. “There was a distortion in the demands for asylum law,” said the French president on Tuesday. “We saw more and more people asking for asylum. This is used by human traffickers, ”he said.
Mr Olivier said that Mr Macron’s complaint about the “abuse” of the European asylum system has been refuted by his support for the new European Commission-backed Migrant Plan, which aims to provide financial incentives for countries to accept refugees to speed up the deportation.
At the moment, Mr Macron can take these blows from the far right, even if he has been working with some success to turn the problem of terrorism into an EU-wide problem.
A policy document, due to be approved by EU interior ministers this week, sets out areas where the EU should step up the fight against extremism, including obliging social media companies to remove extremist content, existing information-sharing platforms to improve and strengthen cooperation with third countries the movements of extremists.
Katrin Bennhold reported from Berlin, Constant Méheut from Paris and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels.
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