BRUSSELS — Emmanuel Macron, who beat back the far-right National Front to win the French presidency, said on Tuesday that there was “an increasing fascination with illiberalism” in Europe and that divisions over values within the European Union were like “a European civil war.”

Speaking after the re-election this month in Hungary of Viktor Orban, the professed champion of “illiberal democracy,” and moves against the judiciary in Poland, Mr. Macron said that Europe was in a battle between the liberal democracy that shaped its postwar vision and a new populist authoritarianism that brushes aside dissents and cares little about the rule of law.

Europeans must turn away from “selfish nationalism,” he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. That was especially so in a world of larger and more powerful nations like Russia, China and a more disengaged United States under President Trump.

Less than a year into his presidency, Mr. Macron is still trying to make his mark both at home, where he is facing union unrest and strikes, and in Europe. He used the speech to further stake out a position as a leading champion of the European Union at a time when states are clamoring for more sovereignty and populist forces have risen to weaken even his core partner, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.