Former French President François Hollande has argued that Europe must prepare to live more independently and stop assuming that the United States will remain the same kind of strategic partner in the future. In remarks reported this week, Hollande said the European Union needs to learn to function “alone” and warned against believing that transatlantic relations will simply return to their old form once Donald Trump is no longer in power.
Hollande called for a faster build-up of stronger European defense capabilities, centered on the countries most ready to move in that direction. His message reflects a broader debate in Europe about strategic autonomy, military preparedness and the need for the continent to assume more responsibility for its own security.
According to Hollande, both political leaders and the wider public need to begin imagining a world in which Europe is no longer able to rely on automatic American backing. He suggested that even a future U.S. administration led by a Democrat would be unlikely to restore the old level of support that many European governments once took for granted.
His comments come as European leaders increasingly discuss the need for a stronger and more coherent defense posture. Reuters and AP recently reported that President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also emphasized Europe’s ability to act more decisively in security matters, while maintaining that stronger European defense should reinforce rather than replace NATO.
Taken together, Hollande’s remarks underline a shift that is becoming more visible in European political thinking: the idea that security on the continent can no longer rest primarily on assumptions about long-term U.S. protection, but must increasingly be built on Europe’s own capacity and political will.
