Beaten but not vanquished, Macron seeks to shakeup EU Parliament

Tuesday, 28 May 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PARIS, AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron tasted defeat in European elections, but not disaster, and is set to continue pushing both his pro-EU agenda and a re-alignment of parties in the EU Parliament.

Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) party finished second behind the far-right National Rally of his arch-rival Marine Le Pen, but the two parties ended with less than 1%age point separating them – on 22.41% and 23.31% respectively.

The vote was seen as a test for Macron domestically after months of anti-government protests, while his credibility in Europe as a champion of deeper integration was also judged to be on the line.

“A disappointment, but not a defeat for the Elysee,” headlined Le Parisien newspaper on Monday, while an editorial in the Les Echos business daily said Macron’s party was “resisting well” two years after his election.

The 41-year-old’s priority will now be trying to increase his influence in the European Parliament where LREM and its centrist allies will send 23 MEPs, the same number as Le Pen’s RN.

His long-standing objective is to re-draw the political map of the European Parliament, long dominated by the centre-right EPP grouping and the centre-left S&D – in the same way as he broke the stranglehold of France’s traditional parties.

Macron’s EU-level partners, who form the ALDE group, finished third in Sunday night’s vote, but the French leader is now aiming to broader the coalition to include new partners, particularly Greens who made major gains.

“The group that we are going to join is going to be a swing group which will try to be a driver in the creation of a progressive alliance. Why not with the Greens?” French Government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye told BFM television on Monday.

She added that ALDE would be renamed.