“Friends of Putin”, “ghosts” of Brussels… Gathered in Lille, this Saturday March 9, to launch the European campaign, Emmanuel Macron’s camp has largely applied itself to criticizing its main adversary, the National Rally (RN ), given favorite of the ballot.
Candidate Valérie Hayer, for whom this was the first major public exhibition, called for a “start” to “thwart the worst-case scenario”, “in the face of those who want to bring down” Europe, while the majority is 10 behind points in the polls by the RN of Jordan Bardella. Same offensive tone for Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who castigated the “vast deception” of the “Le Pen clan” whose votes in the European Parliament are “a litany of betrayals against the interests of the French”.
The “message is no longer audible”
A strategy that should not be abused, according to certain allies of the majority. Emmanuel Macron’s camp must not “make the National Rally the only subject” of the European campaign, François Bayrou warned this Sunday, on the plateau of BFMTV. “I do not believe that the solution is to make the National Rally the only subject of the electoral campaign. I think that in a certain way, it is giving it a gift,” he said. “Usually, European elections are about politics. That is to say power struggles, speeches, promises, criticisms.” But “this is not at all the situation today”, judged the boss of MoDem, also mayor of Pau.
On February 24, the Horizons mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, had already criticized the executive for focusing on the fight against the National Rally to the detriment of the debate of ideas. “Today, the only argument of the majority to which I belong is that we must fight the RN. But this message is no longer audible to our fellow citizens. Me, what I expect from it European election, it’s a program, a vision of Europe”, he said on the set of Public Senate.
Number of seats and countries represented by the two far-right political groups in the European Parliament, as of March 2024
© / AFP
A few days earlier, MEP Gilles Boyer, also close to former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, was also concerned about it in an interview with Figaro : “Fighting extremes is important, but we are campaigning for something, not against someone!”
“Sick obsession”
After the first meeting of the majority this Saturday, Jordan Bardella immediately denounced on the social network “Nothing about Europe, nothing about France, nothing for the French,” added the MEP, who launched his campaign last Sunday in Marseille by focusing his speech on immigration and attacking Emmanuel Macron , accused of being the “great eraser” of France in Europe.
On the right, the head of the list LR François-Xavier Bellamy “remained stunned by the speech” of Valérie Hayer. “This election is not the 2nd round of the presidential election. It’s over. We are in a European election, the subject is Europe,” he demanded on BFMTV.
On the left, the socialist Olivier Faure was surprised that Gabriel Attal “replayed the barrage” against the far right, while the government offered an “unprecedented ideological victory to the RN”, in December, during the vote on the draft immigration law.