In addition to the congratulations of many national leaders, the presidents of the main EU institutions expressed their satisfaction after the French re-elected Emmanuel Macron as their country’s president on Sunday 24 April.
On a trip to India (see other news), the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was pleased to continue the “excellent” cooperation with the French President to “move France and Europe forward”. “In these troubled times, we need a strong Europe and a fully committed France for a more sovereign and strategic EU”, said European Council President Charles Michel. And ECB President Christine Lagarde said that Macron’s “unwavering European commitment”, is “welcome, to meet the challenges” of today.
All three owe much to Mr Macron in the July 2019 EU27 decision on the allocation of senior European positions (see EUROPE 12287/1).
In the European Parliament, relief prevailed after the victory of an assertive pro-European political force over the extreme right advocating national retreat. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said that “a strong Europe needs a strong France”.
Nevertheless, some warned against the rise of anti-European ideas and stressed the need to respond to the discontent expressed through the protest vote, both on the right and the left.
On behalf of the EPP group, Germany’s Manfred Weber noted that 5 years of the Macron presidency had made “populists and extremes stronger than ever”. “This was perhaps the last warning shot”, he warned, saying Mr Macron’s political concept had “failed”.
Speaking on Spanish national radio, S&D group chairwoman Iratxe García Perez said that “Europe [should] strengthen its political project” by advancing “social justice”. The fact that Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party reached the second round of the French presidential elections and further improved its score is “worrying”, she said.
For the co-president of the European Green Party, Belgian Evelyne Huytebroeck, the relief stops at France’s anchorage in the European project. “Neoliberal policies destroying the social foundations of our societies, without addressing the ecological crisis, are not a viable solution for Europe and even less for preventing the rise of the far right”, she said.
The co-chair of The Left group, Martin Schirdewan from Germany, urged the European progressive left to create “convincing political offers”, to achieve socio-ecological transformation and defend democracy.
Finally, like the RN MEPs, the president of the Identity and Democracy group, Italian Marco Zanni, is already focused on the French legislative elections in June, convinced that the results of these elections will confirm the social weakening of France after 5 years of the Macron presidency. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)