French Presidency kick-off descends into Presidential campaign attacks

As is common for the kick-off of Council Presidencies, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to outline France’s ambitious agenda for the next 6 months in this speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday. What started as an optimistic oration only Macron could give, however, quickly descended into a French Presidential campaign stop once he left the lectern. 

France is set to go to the polls on 10 April for the first, and 24 April for the second round of the Presidential elections to decide who will inhabit the Elysée Palace for the next 5 years. 

Despite clear pleas by the French Presidency, and an intention by Macron to keep the two topics separate during his speech at the European Parliament’s Strasbourg plenary, at the end it was only the social democrat S&D and liberal Renew Europe, of which his party is a member, who did not descend into national politics. 

It all kicked-off quite lightly when the leader of the centre-right, Manfred Weber, nudged potential voters to consider the candidacy of Les Républicains candidate Valérie Pécresse. It, however, quickly spiralled out of control when the Green’s Yannick Jadot, who himself is running in the April elections, took to the podium to personally attack the French President over his attitude and inactions towards the climate crisis and migration crisis, making him personally responsible for the number of refugees dying in the Strait of Dover. 

And despite calls by the chamber’s new President, Roberta Metsola and other leading MEPs to turn down the rhetoric and keep the discussion to the Council Presidency objectives, the attacks continued from both, the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum for hours to come. 

For instance, French co-leader of The Left group, Manon Aubry, accused Macron of “arrogance, powerlessness and plotting,” also deriding him over his political support for the election of Parliament President Metsola considering her controversial position on abortion. This, despite Macron arguing in his speech to add the right to abortion to the EU’s charter of fundamental rights. 

Meanwhile, in his speech to MEPs, Macron argued that the EU must hold a “frank dialogue” with Russia and seek a political solution to the escalating tensions in the Ukraine and called on Europe to build more strategic autonomy economically, politically and militarily. Moreover, he called on MEPs and his fellows on the Council to make urgent progress on digitalising and greening the EU’s economy.