EU elections: Macron slams French opposition parties as ‘ambiguous’ on Europe

by Theo Bourgery-Gonse

Both left- and ring-wing political forces have been “ambiguous” on their stances towards the EU, making them unfit to sit in the European Parliament after the 2024 EU elections, France’s Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday (2 August).

While campaigning for the 2024 EU elections is yet to get in full swing, and it remains unclear who will lead the fight for Macron’s Renew, the president is seeking to boost his pro-Europe credentials among the French political contenders.

Far-right Marine Le Pen, whose party sits with the Identity & Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament, “was once in favour of leaving the EU and the euro currency”, Macron told told Figaro Magazine in a broad-sweeping interview on Wednesday, accusing her of “contesting Europe” and being a “nationalist”.

As for far-left counterpart Jean-Luc Melenchon (The Left), a long-time EU foe, he “is against the application of EU treaties, which is a funny thing”, the president added.

Against such a political backdrop, Macron claimed that only he stands out as a reliable European actor, and will stand ready to take a fight against “the rise of extremists” and defend “the unique voice” of France in the EU.

Figaro Magazine’s interview looked to take stock of Macron’s self-dubbed “hundred days to appease”, first enacted after the adoption of a much-decried pensions reform in April. The hope to bring back calm was shattered however after the police killing of a 17-year-old triggered wide-scale protests across the country over the month of July.

A new “political initiative”

In yet another push to create political stability, Macron announced a grand-scale “political initiative” before the end of the month. This would amount to working with those “willing to move forward” on issues as wide as climate change, public services, security, progress and immigration, an Elysee official told EURACTIV under the condition of anonymity.

As Macron’s party falls short of an absolute majority in Parliament, such an announcement can be interpreted as keeping the door open to moderate right-wing Les Republicains (LR) lawmakers to agree a series of legislative texts on an ad hoc basis.

This, however, will be no mean feat. The president confirmed in the interview he would push through an immigration bill in the fall – the content of which, as revealed in the press over the past few months, has already crystallised tensions.

A proposal to grant automatic leave to stay to illegal immigrants working in sectors hit by labour shortages has irked the right aisle of the Parliament, who threaten to block the file come what may.

“I will use what the Constitution allows me to do,” he said in the Figaro, hinting at Article 49-3, which can give the government the power to push a bill through under the condition that a vote of no confidence fails.

This tool, deemed anti-democratic by the opposition parties, has been the source of much condemnation when used to adopt the pensions reform in March.

The French president also dismissed the right-wing LR’s grand plan to modify the French constitution to allow governments to bypass EU treaties when “fundamental national interests”, such as immigration, are at stake, in the words of LR senator Bruno Retailleau.

Instead, the French president said he would look to reinforce integration processes by spreading immigrant populations across the entire country: “If you put all Ukrainian families together in the same place, they will not integrate”.

*first published in:Euractiv.com