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[return to "France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the US"]
1. shevy-+0K[view] [source] 2026-02-03 19:40:54
>>AareyB+(OP)
Makes sense. This software dependency that Europe has on the USA is very, very bad - no just with regards to Zoom, but literally anything. The US corporations are forced by law to always prioritize whoever represents the current US government, and the current US government will remain hostile as long as it is in charge; but even afterwards it is quite logical to assume that any follow-up government will prioritize US interests over European interests. So it makes no sense to pay for outsiders who would work against you.

France does a few things right; scandinavian countries too (I include The Netherlands here, though they are not really scandiavians but in their decision-making, they are often a bit like a hybrid between France and Denmark or Sweden). Spain and Italy lag behind but sometimes, surprisingly, also do the right thing. The real troublemaker is ... Germany. For a reason nobody understands, Germany is like an US satellite in everything it does, but only ... half-hearted. Naturally, "the economy" is one reason (export centric country so it is readily blackmailable by the USA here) but even then you have to ask why german politicians have absolutely no pride at all. France has pride - that's good and bad but good in this context. (UK is more an US colony really after Brexit anyway, with Farage probably going to win - and cause more damage. Brits just don't learn from this.)

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2. epolan+Px1[view] [source] 2026-02-03 23:54:17
>>shevy-+0K
France is the only country in Europe and likely the world that builds anything defense related in France. Pistols, machine guns, aircrafts, ships, helicopters, etc, it's all french.
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3. Rambli+xA3[view] [source] 2026-02-04 15:35:14
>>epolan+Px1
Are you saying only French companies build defense stuff in France or it's the only country in Europe that builds defense stuff in general?

Germany has quite a lot of defense companies that supply half the world I think.

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4. sofixa+cT3[view] [source] 2026-02-04 16:55:07
>>Rambli+xA3
They are saying that France is the only country that builds its own defence stuff only in country (unlike Germany that would buy American jets, for instance).

And it's true for most things that matter. The only exception I can think of is manufactured by cooperative companies that are part owned by France and have facilities in France but that specific thing might be made somewhere else (e.g. Airbus A400Ms for which the final assembly is in Seville, but Airbus is jointly owned by France, Germany, Spain), and small arms (HK, German made). Small arms don't really matter in the grand scheme of things due to the low barrier of entry both for acquiring off the shelf and setting up domestic manufacturing. Good luck doing that with fighter jets or cruise missiles.

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5. bratwu+6I6[view] [source] 2026-02-05 12:52:31
>>sofixa+cT3
airbus is owned by germany and france to each 10% and spain 4%. Things get interesting if you count all the owners from the states together they have ≈ 12%. But it is controlled by Germany france spain.
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