[FULL] We prefer 'respect' to 'bullies': Emmanuel Macron | World Economic Forum 2026

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the president of the French Republic, Emanuel Mcron. [applause] Thank you very much lie for your words . Your majesties, distinguished heads of states and governments, President Lagard, ministers, ambassadors , business leaders, ladies and gentlemen . I'm I'm extremely happy to be here and um it's it's great to be here as a financial times would say and [snorts] um and uh and it's a time of peace, stability and and predictability. Uh so let's try to address the key of this world in a in in a few minutes time. But it's clear that we are we are reaching a time of of unstability of unbalances both from the security and defense point of view and the economic point of view . Look at the situation where we are . I mean a shift towards autocracy against democracy , more violence, more than 60 wars in 2024, an absolute record . Even if I understood a few of them were fixed and um and conflict has become normalized hybrid expanding into new demands space digital information cyber trade and so on . It's as well a shift towards a world without rules where international law is trampled underfoot and where the only law that seems to matter is that of the strongest and imperial ambitions are resurfacing . Obviously, the Russian war, the Russian , which will enter into its fourth year next month , and conflicts continue in the Middle East and across Africa . This is as well a shift towards a world without effective collective governance and where multilateralism is weakened by powers that obstruct it or turn away from it and rules are undermined . And I can multiply the examples of international bodies weakened or left by the key economies. . And when we look at the situation, it's it's clearly a very concerning time because we are killing the structure where we can fix the situation