Labour’s dream of rejoining the European Union may be an ambition to warm the heart of Emmanuel Macron but it hasn’t gone down well with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
She is known for her Euroscepticism, and one of her MEPs has suggested the party may block any attempt by Britain to reverse Brexit. ‘To do so without a referendum would obviously be a denial of democracy because the people expressed their will through a referendum to leave,’ said Charles-Henri Gallois.
Neither Le Pen nor Melenchon champions Frexit but they understand the disdain the majority of French people have for the EU
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Gallois, who is the economic adviser to Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, said: ‘Yes, we would oppose it without a referendum, I think, because in any case we’re against any enlargement of the EU anyway… given that there was a referendum to leave, that we can’t accept a country rejoining without a referendum.’
Referendums and the EU remain a sore point for France’s Eurosceptics. In 2005 the country voted ‘non’ to the EU Constitution, causing panic in Paris and Brussels. President Jacques Chirac promised to respect the result, but he didn’t and nor did his successor, Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2008 the constitution was ratified by parliament without the consent of the people.
That democratic betrayal provoked a schism within France’s Socialist party. Jean-Luc Melenchon quit and went in his own direction, eventually forming in 2016 the Eurosceptic La France Insoumise.
The following year he made no secret of his dislike for the EU when he contested the presidential election. Among Melenchon’s demands were the removal of the EU flag from the National Assembly.
The outgoing president, Francois Hollande, criticised him for daring to call into question ‘what has been the great European project’, while Benoît Hamon – the Socialist party’s candidate in the election – accused Melenchon of telling ‘fairy tales’ about the EU.
The winner of the 2017 election was Emmanuel Macron, a man even more committed to the European project than Francois Hollande. He has railed ceaselessly against Brexit in the last decade. In 2018 he called Brexiteers ‘liars’, and in 2020 he described Brexit as a product of ‘lies and false promises’. He was at it again last summer, blaming the small boats crisis on the ‘lie’ of Brexit. If that’s the case, what is responsible for France’s own illegal immigration crisis? Earlier this week it was revealed that the Republic is undergoing a wave of unprecedented migration, and it is estimated that there are now more than one million illegal immigrants in France.
Macron will be gone in April 2027 and with him will go France’s adoration of the EU. A recent report by the left-leaning think-tank, the Jean-Jaures Foundation, revealed that 45 per cent of the French electorate are ready to vote for the National Rally: evidence of just how calamitous Macron’s presidency has been.
With the centre-left and centre-right struggling to produce a viable candidate, it’s probable that Melenchon will reach the second round of the presidential election. That will pit one Eurosceptic against another, be it Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella. She will discover on July 7 if her appeal against her disqualification for misusing EU funds has been successful.
Neither Le Pen nor Melenchon champions Frexit but they understand the disdain the majority of French people have for the EU. Both have been highly critical of the trade deal agreed last December between the EU and South America, claiming it will be ruinous for French agriculture. A poll earlier this year found that only 38 per cent of the population view Brussels in a favourable light.
Macron has always been aware of this Euroscepticism. In January 2018 he admitted to the BBC that if France had the chance they would also ‘probably’ have voted to leave the EU. Macron never had any intention of giving them that chance. Instead he has made life as difficult as possible for Britain pour encourager les autres.
His successor in the Elysee could also be bloody-minded towards Britain but for another reason; instead of punishing Britain for leaving the EU, a National Rally president could punish them for wanting to rejoin.
Comments