Instead, Mélenchon wants France to strengthen ties with China as well as French-speaking countries in Africa, as well as South American countries. Mélenchon is opposed to Germany’s deeply held attachment to its free-market economic model and favors a planned economy instead. Berlin aims to become Europe’s predominant military power in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and American retrenchment from Europe. Parts of French media, even left-leaning outlet Libération, deemed the book excessively Germanophobic. In it, Mélenchon adopts a provocative tone and states that “political confrontation with German governments is one of the conditions for the liberation of peoples.”