Emmanuel Macron gave a very Europeanist speech on Wednesday January 19 in front of the parliament in Strasbourg to launch the French presidency of the Council of the European Union. The anti-European rhetoric, which contests the decisions, even the legitimacy of the European Union has, for its part, evolved considerably.
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Europe remains, today, an important point of cleavage in the French political debate. On the one hand, we have political leaders who advocate a deepening of European integration, the President of the Republic obviously, but also a large part of the Socialists and Republicans. Conversely, we have candidates who plead for France to recover part of the powers it has delegated to the EU, first and foremost Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But if the inspiration of these critical discourses with regard to Europe has remained the same, the content of the proposals has changed a lot. “I inscribe the superiority of constitutional law over European law, says Marine Le Pen, invited Wednesday from France Inter. And that allows me to constitutionalize the rights of foreigners, which is still the fundamental problem we have with European law. It prevents us from controlling our migration policy.”
.@MLP_official : “We can perfectly stay in the European Union, by putting the European Union in its place. It is not a secret, I consider that the EU is a supra-national structure which is illegitimate.” #le79Inter #Elysee2022 pic.twitter.com/ULsByGwOpu
– France Inter (@franceinter) January 19, 2022
The proposal to constitutionalize is a new proposal for the National Rally. We remember that in 2017, Marine Le Pen took a much harder and more explicit line, since she intended to leave the euro zone, and even propose a referendum to leave the European Union. At the time, she also claimed that around 70% of her program depended directly on this frank break.
It is therefore a very clear change of direction for the RN candidate, but she is not the only one in this case! “This program, the future in common, whatever happens whatever it takes, will be applied, assures Jean-Luc Mélenchon on January 3 on France Inter. And if the European Union objects, then we will practiceopt out. We will say, we no longer apply such and such a rule of the European Union. Therefore, what the French will do for the first time is to defend their own proposals and the suffrage of the French people before the considerations which are of a European order. The will of the French people, when expressed through universal suffrage, must prevail over European standards. On the merits, the position of Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not very different from that of Marine Le Pen. Even if it uses a means which is different, since the candidate France insubordinate to the presidential election says he wants to rely on the opt-out procedure, that is to say a difference negotiated with the right community.
But above all, this is also a very clear development compared to the proposals that were made in 2017: Jean-Luc Mélenchon then spoke of engaging an arm of work with the EU to reform the treaties and, in the event of failure , to get out of it, purely and simply: it was the famous plan A / plan B.
The proposals of these two candidates on European issues have evolved in the same direction. On a rhetorical level, these positions are particularly adroit. They allow Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen to remain on a line of mistrust, even rejection, with regard to the EU: this is important for a whole part of their electorate. And at the same time, they avoid having to raise the specter of leaving the European Union, which the 2017 presidential election has shown to be a foil for a large number of citizens. Clever proposals, therefore, from a rhetorical point of view. It now remains to be determined whether they are realistic on the political and legal level: this will be the whole point of the debate which has opened today!