François Diaz-Maurin
These users were not reacting to the latest late-night show, a political analysis in The Atlantic or the New York Times, or even a TV appearance by a representative from the Democratic party. They were praising a French lawmaker after watching his speech on the French Senate floor on Tuesday, as it made the rounds across Europe and North America. By Thursday morning, social media posts about the speech had been viewed at least hundreds of thousands of times.
Amid the fallout after US President Donald Trump reversed an 80-year-long strategic partnership with Europe to side with Russia in the Ukraine war, Claude Malhuret, a center-right senator who was largely unknown outside France, struck a chord that resonated with both European and American audiences.
During a general session in the French Senate, Malhuret offered an eight-minute-long, extremely direct “intervention” about the war in Ukraine and the security of Europe. For the most part, however, his speech—which among other things called Trump an “incendiary emperor”—was a critique of the Trump administration. Foreign officials and lawmakers don’t generally comment about the domestic politics of another country, much less of an ally.
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