European Force In Ukraine Could 'Respond' If Attacked By Russia: Macron

A 'coalition of the willing' is mulling a European army which would be deployed to Ukraine in a 'peacekeeping' capacity, except that French President Emmanuel Macron has also admitted these Western forces would be ready to join the conflict if provoked.

Macron is currently hosting the leaders of nearly 30 countries plus NATO and European Union chiefs at a Paris summit - where as we described earlier they are pushing back on US-backed peace plans by ruling out sanctions relief for Russia.

Most importantly, Macron said Wednesday that a proposed European armed force to enforce a future Ukraine peace deal could "respond" to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.

Via Reuters

"If there was again a generalized aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would be under attack and then it’s our usual framework of engagement," Macron said.

"Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it," the French leader explained.

Of course, this is precisely why the Kremlin has rejected any plan which calls for NATO country forces to be present in Ukraine. President Putin sent his army into Ukraine in February 2022 as in large part a reaction to constant NATO expansion to Russia's doorstep.

France and the United Kingdom are leading the way in putting together what they've dubbed a "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

The forces would have the "character of deterrence against any potential Russian aggression," Macron said further - which comes dangerously close to simply saying he wants to send NATO troops into the conflict to fight Moscow forces.

More billions have also been committed: "Macron committed to a further 2 billion euros ($2.16bn) in French military support on Wednesday, including missiles, warplanes and air defense equipment. Zelenskyy said other partners could announce aid packages on Thursday," international outlets have reported.

Meanwhile, Moon of Alabama has highlighted the latest flip-flopping from NATO's top leadership on the question of peace, and eventual restoration of positive relations with Russia:

NATO Chief Says Russia Relations Should Be Restored Post War - Bloomberg, Mar 14 2025

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said relations with Russia should eventually be normalized once the fighting ends in Ukraine, while stressing the need to keep pressure on Moscow to ensure progress in ceasefire negotiations.

“It’s normal if the war would have stopped for Europe somehow, step by step, and also for the US, step by step, to restore normal relations with Russia,” Rutte said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday.

Just twelve days later ...

'This is not the time to go it alone,' NATO's Rutte tells U.S. and Europe - Reuters, Mar 26, 2025

While welcoming Trump's push for peace in Ukraine, Rutte said there would be no normalisation of relations with Russia once the war had ended.

"This will take decades because there is a total lack of confidence. The threat is still there," he told reporters.

Given all of this, the prospect of peace doesn't actually seem close, despite the continued optimistic statements coming from the White House. President Trump has aimed to achieve peace within the some first one hundred days of his presidency, but that's looking increasingly unrealistic at this point. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/28/2025 - 04:15

The Fall Of Europe...

Authored by Paul Weston via X:

A few harsh realities to consider: 

1) The hard-left has infiltrated all Western institutions and actively seeks to undermine and subvert all Western nations - regardless of which particular puppet politician is in power. 

2) Most countries within Western Europe will see their native young become a minority well before 2050. 

3) Western countries currently operate on the principle that foreign people and foreign cultures are intrinsically good, whilst European culture and people are irredeemably evil. 

4) This sets up the neo-Marxist agenda of the oppressed and the oppressor which copies the early 20th century revolutionary ideology of Marxist-Leninism where the working class was designated as the oppressed, and the bourgeoisie the oppressor. 

5) The result of this was the murder of 100 million people deemed the "oppressor" in Communist Russia and Communist China. 

6) Islam is currently designated the "oppressed" by all Western institutions, regardless of the fact that Islam is a supremacist ideology with a 1,400-year history of imperial expansion and warfare. Europeans are designated the "oppressor" even as they yield to every edict of "diversity" ladled upon them. 

7) Islam will politically control much of Western Europe before 2050 as a result of rapidly declining native demographics, coupled with rapidly expanding Islamic demographics and single-minded bloc voting for Islamic political parties. 

8) Few politicians or journalists (none in England...) will talk about this, let alone state what should be done to halt the overthrow of Western Europe. People who do talk about it are liable to be arrested for Hate Crime and imprisoned. 

9) This represents an existential crisis which threatens our very survival as a people, a culture, and an entire continent. We are a dwindling demographic deemed the oppressor by our own Traitor Class, even as a growing demographic with a supremacist belief system is forced upon us by the Traitor Class - which maintains our potential future masters are the oppressed. The history of Lenin, Stalin and Mao with regard to the oppressed and the oppressor does not bode well for the European people. 

10) We have little time left, but most people cling to the naïve belief that we can somehow vote our way out of this terrible situation. I don't entirely discount this possibility, but I do believe that should the AfD in Germany or Marine Le Pen in France threaten to win an election in a landslide, they would never be allowed to take power. The EU criminals in the Commission - and they really are criminals - have already intimated they will ban "far-right" parties capable of winning elections - and recently did just that in Romania.

All in all then, not good, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. I'm sorry if people find this depressing, but I do think it is a matter of crucial importance that our situation be properly understood. After all, if we don't realise how bad things are, we will be unable to plan any possible salvation.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/28/2025 - 03:30

Ferrari To Raise Prices Up To 10% To Offset Auto Tariffs

It looks like Ferrari is ready to try and stick it to President Trump and his newly imposed auto tariffs...

The automaker put out a press release late Wednesday/early Thursday that said it would "update its commercial policy, based on the preliminary information currently available regarding the introduction of import tariffs on EU cars into the USA". 

"While reaffirming its commitment to maximum client attention and protection and with the goal to provide certainty to them: The commercial terms will remain unchanged for orders of all models imported before April 2, 2025 and for orders of the following three families - Ferrari 296, SF90 and Roma - regardless the import date," it said.

"For the current remaining models, the new import conditions will be partially reflected on pricing, up to a maximum 10 per cent increase, in coordination with our dealer network," the release said. 

Ferrari announced it will hold prices steady on vehicles imported before April 2. After that, pricing for the 296, SF90, and Roma models will remain unchanged, but its more in-demand models — including the Purosangue SUV, 12Cilindiri, and limited-edition F80 — will see hikes of up to 10%. That means an extra $43,000 on the $430,000 Purosangue and over $350,000 added to the $3.5 million F80, CNBC added. 

As we wrote this morning worries over tariffs hit markets on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 halting a three-day win streak to close down 1.1%. 

“Tariffs are front and center on people’s minds,” said Arun Sai, senior multi-asset strategist at Pictet Asset Management. “We all know that tariffs are stagflationary and markets have been trying to price that to different extents. What we don’t know yet is what’s the ultimate lasting impact.”

"If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large-scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Trump wrote late Wednesday/early Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, Trump signed an order imposing a 25% tariff on all auto imports—a move he believes could reverse decades of disastrous industrial policy that have hollowed out the core of the country. The order takes effect next week, in addition to the 'reciprocal tariffs' set for April 2. 

Bloomberg reported earlier that the EU is preparing countermeasures. France has asked the European Commission to consider using the anti-coercion instrument to strike back against Trump's escalating trade war. 

In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that reciprocal levies would be lower than expected: "We're going to make it all countries, and we're going to make it very lenient. I think people are going to be very surprised. It'll be, in many cases, less than the tariff that they've been charging us for decades."

For an in-depth look at how tariffs could effect the industry and markets across the global, premium subscribers can read this note that we published earlier this morning. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/28/2025 - 02:45