Dominique de Villepin made his name with a memorable speech to the UN security council in February 2003, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq. De Villepin, the then French foreign minister, in effect signalled France’s intention to veto a UN resolution authorising the war, forcing the US and UK to act unilaterally. He warned that Washington’s strategy would lead to chaos in the Middle East and undermine international institutions. The prophetic plea was met with applause, a rare event in the security council chamber. It led to the career diplomat’s inclusion as a character in David Hare’s 2004 anti-war play, Stuff Happens.

Now the veteran statesman, who warned about the risks of Europe’s over-reliance on the US many years before it became a mainstream opinion in Paris or Berlin, is back with advice on how to respond to the most serious breakdown in Europe’s relationship with the US in 80 years.

As Donald Trump alienates America’s oldest allies at alarming speed, European leaders are scrambling to adjust to the new, chaotic world order. But De Villepin believes there is also an opportunity for Europe to unite behind liberal democracy and fill the vacuum left behind by the Trump administration. He is convinced that there is an urgent need for European independence in defence, national security and technology.

It is a reflection of the alarm in Europe that Paris, for the last month, has been bustling with visiting diplomats, premiers and heads of state. On Monday Emmanuel Macron became the first European leader to be welcomed to the White House since Trump’s return to power. But Macron has also convened world leaders to discuss potential new coalitions of countries willing to step in to blunt the consequences of Trump’s realignment on Ukraine and his apparent readiness to abandon liberal democracy.

Trump’s foreign policy is unpredictable, but he appears now to side with Russia over Ukraine. Even as Macron was at the White House attempting to salvage transatlantic ties, the US voted with Russia against a UN resolution condemning Vladimir Putin’s war. North Korea and Belarus were among only a handful of other nations that followed the US.

“We now have three illiberal superpowers: Russia, China and the US,” De Villepin says. “America can no longer be considered an ally of Europe.” But he warns that the US will not prosper in this disordered, survival-of-the-fittest world it is creating, “because they will be completely isolated”.

He sees Trump’s authoritarian turn as both a crisis and an opportunity for Europe to unite behind a new common purpose. “The consequence of this will be a European awakening of democracy. We’re going to fight for liberal democracy more than ever. Because the question now is really: sovereignty or submission.”

Achieving European sovereignty sounds logical, but how do we get there? De Villepin suggests a three-point plan for a more assertive and independent continent. The first step is to develop a common defence pact in Europe, with a significant boost to the European defence industry. “We urgently need to develop our own systems, and not just buy from the US.” The second is to increase investment in innovation and tech, as outlined in the Draghi report last year, which warned of an “agonising decline” for Europe in the absence of an €800bn annual spending boost. The third step is to strengthen Franco-British collaboration on defence, intelligence, nuclear issues and Ukraine, where De Villepin wants to see clear security guarantees in the event of a treaty and ceasefire.

“We have to take our destiny in our own hands,” he says. “Stop believing in illusions. Trump is abandoning Ukraine and [Elon] Musk is supporting extremist movements in Europe because they want a weaker EU. They understand that Europe is now the main obstacle for their vision. And this is, of course, not acceptable.”

Does he support Ukraine’s European – including French – allies putting boots on the ground to protect against a future Russian attack? “As part of an agreed peacekeeping plan by the international community, I would support a French contribution.”

Back in 2003, De Villepin’s impassioned UN speech was delivered during a similar low point in transatlantic relations, with American neoconservatives renaming French fries “freedom fries” while rightwing news organisations labelled France and other European countries opposing the Iraq invasion an “axis of weasels”.

His challenge to George Bush’s US, which drew on the painful wartime history underpinning the transatlantic alliance, remains acutely relevant in 2025. “This message comes to you today from an old country, France, from an old continent like mine, Europe, that has known wars, occupation and barbarity,” he told the security council in 2003. “A country that does not forget and knows everything it owes to the freedom fighters who came from America and elsewhere. And yet has never ceased to stand upright in the face of history and before mankind. Faithful to its values, it wishes resolutely to act with all the members of the international community.”

Rumours of a De Villepin run for the Élysée in 2027 have been circulating in the French media. He remains coy about a presidential ambition. What is clear, however, is that he thinks the next wave of national elections across Europe will be decided as much by national security and foreign affairs as by domestic issues. “National security will be the most important issue for voters, because it’s about liberty, values, whether we believe in sovereignty or submission.”

This seems to be the rationale behind his return to public life – not just as a potential presidential candidate in France, but as the unofficial spokesperson for what he calls “European sovereignty”. He used the phrase six times during our 90-minute conversation. “With my background, my opposition to the Iraq war and all my experience of dealing with geopolitical crises, I felt that there were missing voices speaking up for the defence of Europe, the defence of our values, so it was my duty to speak up.”

De Villepin belongs to a long tradition of French politicians sceptical of America’s global supremacy, and now feels vindicated. But he’s not pushing a dogmatic anti-Americanism. He has close ties to the US, studied there, and emphasises his respect for America’s soft power, its universities, its culture of innovation. “They are giving that up for this absurd idea of full power. They are ignoring history. You can never win with fire alone.”

He forecasts that mass protests against Trump will emerge across the US as soon as the failures of his policies become evident. He predicts, like most economists, that the trade tariffs will lead to exploding inflation and layoffs, and that Trump’s “reckless” foreign policy will make the country much weaker. “This is always the problem for the nationalists and populists. What I call the principle of reality.”

The problem, I suggest, is that the far right is waging war on reality, and it seems to be winning – at least in the US. In the presidential election last year, Trump won the popular vote with a small margin of 1.5 percentage points nationwide, but he won by an average of 54 points in “news deserts”, where few serious local media outlets are available, according to a study from Northwestern University.

De Villepin sees this as an urgent call to build up the European tech industry and encourage independence from US platforms. “Elon Musk wants a complete vassalisation of Europe and European media. So this is a question of our fundamental liberties, and our freedom to think what we want to think. We need to build our own tools, whether it’s LLMs [large language models], social platforms or cloud tech. We have to understand that this is a state of emergency.”

Before Germany’s general election on 23 February, Musk campaigned frenetically for the far right AfD, but to less effect than he might have hoped for. The party was polling at about 20% when Musk embraced it and ended up with 20.8% of the vote. De Villepin does not believe that a Musk intervention in favour of the far right would be particularly successful in France, either. “Oh, it would be the surest way for Le Pen to lose, if Elon Musk came here to campaign with her.”

Jordan Bardella, the youthful president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, cancelled a trip to a rightwing conference in the US after the former Trump aide Steve Bannon made what appeared to be a Nazi salute at the event.

De Villepin predicts that Le Pen will try to keep some distance between herself and Trump’s Maga movement, but he insists they are ideological twins. “She’s very close to Russia. Close to these ideas. Anti-globalisation, anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism. So they’re completely linked.”

His own path to a potential presidential candidacy might be filled with obstacles and contradictions. As a pro-Palestinian, moderate conservative Gaullist, he could struggle to get past the first round. But he clearly sees a political future where his foreign policy experience will top most immediate domestic concerns.

For now, he says, European nationalists can gather, as they did recently in Madrid, laud Trump and pledge to “make Europe great again” – but soon, he believes, Trump will be a toxic brand in Europe. “This is an opportunity for Europe to be the voice of stability,” he says. “Because here, we know the consequences of authoritarian nationalism.”