French President Emmanuel Macron and National Rally leader Marine le Pen on Tuesday voiced different visions of the EU, one advocating for the bloc of 27 nations, the other defending nationalism.
If Macron falters in France’s presidential runoff between the two on April 24, Le Pen’s party could be at the helm of the EU, an abhorrent idea to most leaders in the bloc.
Experts say that a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU. Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
Macron on Tuesday traveled to Strasbourg, the seat of the EU parliament, to speak about France’s role in Europe.
Polls show he is the favorite in the runoff, but Le Pen has significantly narrowed the gap compared with when Macron handily won five years ago.
“Nationalism is war,” Macron told supporters waving French and European flags.
Photo: EPA-EFE
At a time when “war is back on the European continent ... it’s through Europe that we will build peace,” he said. “Europe is a treasure we patiently built, but which will also allow us to respond to the challenges of the future.”
France also holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency this spring, which also allows it to speak with the power of the 27.
It is a pedestal few want to offer to Le Pen.
The National Rally leader wants to bolster national border controls, reduce French contributions to the EU budget and cease to recognize that European law has primacy over national law.
She has proposed removing taxes on hundreds of goods and wants to reduce taxes on fuel, which would go against the EU’s free market rules and climate change policies.
Although Le Pen has excised “Frexit” from her platform, her hostility toward the EU is still clear.
Speaking to France Inter radio, Le Pen said on Tuesday that “a large majority of French people no longer want the European Union as it exists today.”
She accused the bloc of acting “in an absolutely anti-democratic way.”
She denied accusations that her policies would amount to a French exit from the EU.
Instead, she said that the EU can be changed “from within.”
Macron accused Le Pen of speaking “nonsense.”
“She explains that she won’t pay the bill for the [EU] club, that she will change the rules, but will change the rules alone” he said. “It means she wants to get out [of the EU], but doesn’t dare say it anymore.”
Jean-Claude Piris, who served as a legal counsel to the European Council, said a victory for Le Pen would have the effect of an “earthquake.”
“She is in favor of a form of economic patriotism with state aids, which is contrary to the rules of the single market,” Piris told reporters.
She wants to modify the French constitution by giving preference to the French, by suppressing the right of the soil, the right of asylum,” which would be “totally incompatible with the values of the European treaties,” he said.
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