The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, warned this Tuesday about the current "crises" that democracies are going through and called to "rehumanize" social networks and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while demanding to protect minors from these digital environments through specific regulations and child protection policies.
In a dialogue held at the Paraninfo of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Macron detailed the four major structural crises that, in his view, explain democratic vulnerability in Europe. The first is the rupture of the "economic promise" of progress for the middle classes, initiated with the deindustrialization of the 1990s and aggravated after the financial crisis of 2008, whose costs were borne in an "asymmetric" manner by the European population.
The second element, he continued, is the "demographic crisis and the stagnation of birth rates," a challenge that "alters intergenerational balances and forces the management of migratory flows to sustain the social model."
A less effective and more incomprehensible democracy
As a third factor, the head of the French State described the "crisis of effectiveness and intelligibility" of institutions, arguing that "hyper-bureaucratic complexity slows down decisions and generates a social impatience that favors attraction to simplistic or demagogic responses."
According to him, this feeling that "nothing works" fuels the rise of populism and extreme forces, which become "more attractive and effective" in a context of massive polarization.
The fourth crisis pointed out by the French leader is the "anthropological mutation" associated with the intensive use of social networks and artificial intelligence.
Macron criticized that the "architecture of the platforms" is not aimed at educating or strengthening public debate, but at "provoking the maximum excitement" and generating "cognitive and emotional dependencies" among users.
He emphasized that the algorithmic logic prioritizes immediate outrage over shared reflection, transforming these spaces into "machines for dismantling democracies" that favor "negative emotions, confrontation, and what separates us."
In this line, he has alerted to the deterioration of the mental health of young people, who spend on average "more than four hours a day" connected to social networks, displacing the time dedicated to reading, sports, or prolonged concentration.
Regulate the platforms and protect minors
To reverse this scenario, the French president has urged to "regain control" through new rules and reinforced protection of childhood, suggesting limiting access to social networks for minors between 13 and 15 years old during their maturation stage.
He has also called for accelerating the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) of the European Union in order to ensure transparency about algorithmic biases, combat coordinated manipulation through fake accounts, and curb "foreign interference" that seeks to destabilize European societies through artificial polarization.
Moreover, Macron has emphasized that Europe cannot resign itself to being a mere "consumer of North American or Chinese technology" in a world marked by rivalry between great powers.
The French leader has defended strengthening European strategic autonomy by promoting investment in supercomputing, proprietary AI models, robotics, and training, with the aim of increasing productivity without eroding the welfare state.
In this context, he has insisted that the priority in AI matters must be to set ethical limits to avoid "losing control in the hands of machines" and to ensure that technology remains true to the principle of human dignity.
In the colloquium, alongside Macron, participated the writer Javier Cercas, the co-founder of the verification medium Maldita.es, Clara Jiménez Cruz, and the director of the geopolitics podcast El Orden Mundial, Fernando Arancón, who raised their questions to the president.
During the question round, in which students from UCM also participated, Macron insisted on the need to strengthen the application of the Digital Services Act (DSA) to hold platforms like YouTube accountable for the algorithmic biases that promote controversial or viral content for advertising purposes.
"There is no freedom if there are no limitations on the freedom of others," Macron emphasized, equating the legal obligations of media directors with those that, in his opinion, social networks and anonymous users must assume.
Age verification and trust in AI
Macron has announced that the European Commission will present a package of tools, jointly developed by countries such as France and Spain, to implement age verification mechanisms for access to platforms, preserving privacy through AI-based systems and which he has guaranteed will not pose risks to personal data.
Asked about the impact of AI on job opportunities for young people and the reduction of junior positions, the French president has sent a message of optimism: "The worst would be to be afraid of technology."
He pointed out that the key lies in the speed of adoption, anticipation, and continuous training to transform automatable jobs. In his view, technological development will favor a "rehumanization" of the labor market, revaluing professions linked to care, direct interaction, artistic creation, and ecological transition.
European response to global competition
In light of the protectionist turn of Washington and Beijing, Macron has called for abandoning European "naivety" and applying "mirror clauses" and trade adjustment instruments to curb unfair competition from "heavily subsidized" foreign products. To this end, he has proposed strengthening the European budget allocated to innovation, accelerating the integration of capital markets, and supporting the creation of "European champions."
The French president has also noted the end of the European model based on "cheap" Russian energy and exports to China, reminding that the EU endures daily trade deficits close to 1 billion euros with the Asian giant.
Finally, Macron has appealed to the pride of youth for the European project against nationalist rhetoric, describing Brexit as "the great lie of the last 30 years" after causing a ten-point drop in GDP in the United Kingdom without resolving the migration issue.
After highlighting milestones such as the issuance of joint debt after the pandemic or the coordinated response to the war in Ukraine, the French leader has called for a "shock of unity" to consolidate the EU's transition from a union of peace and prosperity to a true power.