The chair of the ALDE group at the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, calls in an interview published in Sunday 9 September in French regional paper Ouest France, for an alliance with Emmanuel Macron’s party, ‘La République en marche.’
"With Emmanuel Macron, we don’t just have the same analysis, but also more or less the same proposals", he said, noting that the 2018 elections would turn into a fight between nationalist populists and a pro-European alternative, so he said one had to present together and then be a member of the same group before the elections.
Quizzed about this group and whether it would be under the ALDE banner, Verhofstadt said discussions were underway, but it would be something new, a movement, a pro-European alternative to the nationalists. He said his group was ready to participate right now, without waiting. Each party would keep its own symbols but the created movement would be wider. The aim is to create a decisive group in the future parliament, a tool for halting the nationalist wave, explained the MEP.
However, asked about this alliance on 9 September, the general delegate for 'La République en marche', Christophe Castaner – who has begun a tour of Europe in search of new allies and met Verhofstadt on 4 September, – said that his party was "not in a logic of alliances".
Although Macron and Verhofstadt back the idea of transnational lists, they were until now divided on 'Spitzenkandidaten.' But the MEP, who was himself a ‘Spitzenkandidat' in 2014, now seems to question the system. He admitted that he had been greatly in favour but was now greatly against, before justifying (our translation): "One likes Spitzenkandidaten that people can vote for, but the democratic justification was the transnational list. And for purely political reasons, the EPP didn’t want them. But by refusing transnational lists, they killed off the Spitzencandidate. (…) This remains a system where it’s Mme Merkel who decides who will be the next president of the Commission." (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)