“We need a Europe that strengthens our countries instead of weakening them”, defends François-Xavier Bellamy

“Of course another European policy is possible because we need a Europe that strengthens our countries instead of weakening them”, defended Les Républicains MEP François-Xavier Bellamy on Wednesday January 19 on franceinfo, after Emmanuel Macron’s speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The President of the Republic defended his vision of the European Union in front of the MEPs while France takes the lead of the European Union for six months.

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According to François-Xavier Bellamy, Emmanuel Macron “will leave Europe more fractured than it has ever been”. He says he opposes the Head of State’s vision of Europe which “has developed a series of big announcements, big promises, but the truth is that there is an obvious difference between the scale of the ambitions he is rolling out and the reality of the timetable to which he has forced this French presidency to the European Union”, which takes place “in the middle of the presidential campaign in France.

“Emmanuel Macron should have asked for this presidency to be postponed. When we hear the President of the Republic explain to us that he is going to change Europe in this period, we find it very difficult to believe it.”

Francois-Xavier Bellamy

at franceinfo

MEP LR outlined his own vision of the European Union, opposing Emmanuel Macron’s arguments point by point: “The Europe that we no longer want is the one that is about to endanger our nuclear industry when we have never needed carbon-free electricity so much to guarantee all French people cheap energy that allows us to prepare for the ecological transition”, he launched.

“The Europe we need is the one that will allow us to strengthen our borders, not the one that is preventing us from deciding freely on our migration policy. The Europe we need is the one that will allow us to protect the single market with a carbon tax”, he detailed.

“We remain faithful to what we have always stood for, it may be a difference with the President of the Republic and those around him today”, added François-Xavier Bellamy.