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Politico (26 February 2026)

Laura KAYALI and Jacopo BARIGAZZI

With only 14 months left in power, President Emmanuel Macron is now in a race against the clock to chart how France can wield the full force of its nuclear arsenal to guarantee Europe's security more widely.

Much will boil down to whether he makes concrete commitments in a landmark speech on France's atomic strategy on Monday, to be delivered from the Atlantic peninsula where the country's nuclear submarines are based.

After decades sheltering under the American nuclear umbrella, European governments — particularly in Berlin and Warsaw — are increasingly warming to the idea that Paris could use Western Europe's largest atomic arsenal to play a bigger role in safeguarding the continent's security.

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