After the European elections and given the rise of the far right, one of the strongest economies in the European Union is facing political instability. The reason for France, where a far-right party managed to capture a percentage that forced Macron to call early elections. Both Le Pen and Macron are asking the other parties to join hands, each for their own goals.
Throughout the campaign of the European elections, Le Pen managed to shake off the extreme elements of her party, but also to win many votes by cultivating Europhobia, which she managed by taking advantage of the citizens’ vague knowledge of European affairs, which can be found even in the citizens belonging to the pro-European camp.
The similarities with the Brexit period
If one analyzes the pre-election period, one will notice that the situation that prevailed in France, during the European elections, but also now, with the corresponding Brexit period, are similar. As in Paris, so in Britain, the press and the Conservatives tried to cultivate a climate based on the belief that Britain would prosper if freed from European law.
It is worth noting that a few years later and since the propaganda succeeded in achieving the goal of Britain leaving Europe, 55% of Britons believe they were wrong and only 31% still believe that the UK is better off outside the European Union .
It is noted that Brexit – hailed as a movement of freedom by Marine Le Pen at the time – was not mentioned even once by the National Alarm during the European elections.
How Brussels reacted to Macron’s decision for early elections
After the announcement of the early elections in France, some officials in Brussels say that this decision is France’s “Brexit moment”. They see Macron’s decision to confront Le Pen as quite dangerous, as wrong as David Cameron’s move to confront those who supported Brexit in the June 2016 referendum.
Macron’s belief that he will destroy the threat from the right with one bold vote risks simply fueling years of political and economic recriminations, officials said. But the French election is more important, as it could become the most disastrous national election in the 70-year history of the European enterprise.
Macron’s speech
Emmanuel Macron called for “all democratic forces from across the political spectrum to unite in order to confront the extreme right of Marine Le Pen”. The French president, during the press conference he gave, appealed to all democratic parties to join his camp in order to defeat the extremes.
He went on to say “the right is making an alliance with the extreme right… The conservatives are turning their backs on the legacy of [former presidents] de Gaulle, Chirac and Sarkozy,” Macron underlined.
The subversive proposals of Bardela and Le Pen
The president of the National Alarm, Jordan Bardella, called for the replacement of the law-based, supranational European Union with something completely different, that is, an agreed cooperation between the member states, according to their interests and comparative advantages. This is a plan that pro-Brexit Britons could defend as EU reform. In essence, it is a revival of the old idea of a loose union of states, which was rejected by the six founding members, including France, the 1950s.
National Alert leader Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, wants to revive borders between EU countries for citizens of “non-Schengen countries”, everyone from British and American tourists to undocumented migrants. This, of course, is practically impossible, as borders cannot be imposed without impeding the free movement of citizens.
If Le Pen and Bardela manage to win the election they could do a lot of damage in a very short period of time. However, Macron could retain the powers given to them by the constitution, i.e. foreign policy and defense. Still, he could not force the National Assembly to come up with money to prop up Ukraine or support emerging plans for a massive EU joint borrowing program for military investment.
It is noted that when Britain left the EU, it was left… crippled. In the event that a de facto withdrawal from the European project by a power like France is finally made, it could be “fatal”.
