L’Express: What is your reaction to Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the second round of the presidential election?
Roberta Metsola: Emmanuel Macron has won a historic victory. With the European Parliament, I look forward to continuing the work started at the start of the French presidency. And this work, we will continue it well beyond the French semester, because the health crisis and then the war in Ukraine have cruelly reminded us that we need more Europe and better.
This success is also a result that commits us: with growing abstention, a phenomenon that we are witnessing everywhere in Europe and in many democracies, with high scores of protesting political forces, we must more than ever provide responses to the challenges of today and tomorrow. Our citizens send us very strong signals, it is up to all of us to respond to them.
More than 4 out of 10 French people voted for Marine le Pen. Does the fragmentation of French society worry you?
This is not a uniquely French phenomenon. Throughout Europe, we are witnessing a polarization between the urban world, with qualifications, which has access to services and infrastructures, and a rurality which has a feeling of abandonment and downgrading. We must all, at our levels, provide answers to our fellow citizens who live in this anxiety, this reality.
Responding to climate challenges, for example, means offering transport modes and infrastructures, everywhere in our territories, respectful of the environment which, in addition, take us out of a logic dependence on Russian gas. These solutions also generate value-added jobs, including in rural areas.
The health crisis has also shown us that many Europeans want to leave densely populated cities to favor life in medium-sized cities. This movement must be sustainable and we must support it. It is, I think, by providing concrete answers to our fellow citizens that we will appease our societies.
For Europe, what does the re-election of a very pro-European president mean?
It is a victory that confirms the ambition for a Europe that gives itself the means to act.
A Europe that asserts itself in the face of hostile powers, for which we are a threat in the very essence of what founds us: a political construction based on peace, democracy and human rights. These values worry all autocrats because they signify the end, in the more or less long term, of their model. Nothing will ever stop a popular impulse for freedom. No regime anywhere in the world can resist this. That’s who we are and that’s what we promote within and beyond. This is Europe.
What are your priorities for the coming weeks?
As I have already said, these elections are a victory for pro-European forces. We will continue to deliver for Europe.
We have just reached an agreement on important digital legislation. The next one will focus on the climate dossier. The European Green Deal is a necessity for us, both to save the planet and for our own security.
For Europe, everything has changed since February 24 and we must ensure that Europe responds and defends its values, protects life and continues to support Ukraine, while making this horrible war the most mistaken costly of a leader in history.