This is extraordinary: former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin delivering an absolutely masterful lecture on diplomacy to Elisabeth Borne (France's PM from 2022 to January 2024) over Gaza. I translated the whole exchange for you 👇 It really depressingly illustrate how starkly the caliber of France's leaders have deteriorated since Villepin's time (he was PM in 2005-2007). Borne embodies the current resignation of European leaders, their defeated shrug of "what can we possibly do if it means opposing the U.S.?" But this learned helplessness raises an obvious question: if we systematically resign and subordinate ourselves, what's even the point of France or Europe? 🤷 By contrast Villepin exemplifies what French & European independence and ambition could actually mean in practice; how much room for action actually exists - if only there was political courage to use it instead of hiding behind "beautiful words". Most crucially, he details the catastrophic consequences of our current passivity: our silence on Gaza isn't just destroying international law and Europe's supposed founding principles, it's enabling a dangerous escalation that risks transforming this conflict into a civilizational confrontation that could tear Europe apart. What makes this exchange so powerful is how it captures two radically different Europes in dialogue: Villepin's Europe of diplomatic initiative, moral clarity, and strategic independence versus today's Europe of resignation, irrelevance, and voluntary submission. Between these two visions, the choice should be obvious. That our leaders consistently choose the latter is the tragedy of our time.