Emmanuel Macron will detail this Wednesday before MEPs in Strasbourg the priorities of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE), which began on January 1 and will end in six months. The Head of State is expected in the European hemicycle at the end of the morning for a 20 minute speech which will be followed by a long sequence of Q&A with MPs, fewer than usual due to anti-Covid gauge measures. He will be questioned by elected representatives from all countries but, as is customary for the rotating presidencies of the EU, an important place will be left to French speakers. Should thus speak the LR François-Xavier Bellamy, the LFI Manon Aubry, the RN Jordan Bardella and Nicolas Bay, but also the ecologist Yannick Jadot, the only presidential candidate to sit in Strasbourg.
Case contact at Covid-19, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will ultimately not be present. At the end of this debate, the President of the Republic will have lunch with the new President of Parliament, the Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola, elected on Tuesday, before holding a press conference.
“Revival, power and belonging”, at the top of the priorities
This speech is an opportunity for Emmanuel Macron to reconsider his priorities – “revival, power and belonging” – announced on December 9 at a press conference. According to the Élysée,The red wire” is of “strengthen European sovereignty” with the hope of obtaining “quick and concrete results” on several files such as minimum wage, the border carbon tax or the reform of the Schengen area to better combat irregular migration.
The President of the Republic should also “to gain height in relation to the program of these six months” for “carrying the singular path of Europe”, who wants to be “a power of stability“ in “a turbulent international context” marked in particular by the tensions between Russia and Ukraine on the borders of the EU.
This trip to Strasbourg, which should be carefully followed in Brussels and in the European capitals since the French president will speak “on behalf of the 27 EU countries” according to the Elysée, also has a strong national dimension, even if Emmanuel Macron has not yet officially declared himself a candidate for his succession. Since his election in 2017, celebrated to the sound of the EU anthem, the leader of the State poses as a leader of the pro-Europeans in the face of “nationalists” and “populists”, and praises the progress made at 27, such as the post-Covid 19 recovery plan of 750 billion euros adopted in 2020.
Defend your vision of Europe in view of the presidential election
A vision that does not share several of his political adversaries who presented their European program this week, like Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In front of the press on Tuesday, the boss of the RN thus defended her “view of Europe”, that “of a European alliance of nations”, lambasting them “Europeanists”, supporters, according to her, of a Union “Dominatrix of nations“. Emmanuel Macron is “remained for four years the factotum of Madame (Angela) Merkel”, the former German chancellor, and her project for the EU is “unrealistic, dangerous”, she denounced.
The candidate of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposes for his part to “restore our sovereignty based on two essential clauses: social, ecological and democratic non-regression, and alignment with the highest standards” at the European level. “The conditions are more ripe than ever for a big change in Europe”, he said in an interview with World.
Facing them, the presidential majority intends to make, as in 2017, Europe “a campaign marker” by launching, this weekend, the operation “Les 24 heures pour l’Europe” with thousands of posters “Changing Europe to advance France” and the distribution of 300,000 leaflets.