Applauded for his ambition for autonomy and the strengthening of European cooperation, criticized for using, according to his opponents, the platform of the European Parliament to serve his re-election project, Emmanuel Macron presented in Strasbourg, Wednesday January 19, the strategy of the France for its mandate as French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE).
The French president first called on Europeans to “boldness” for the European Union (EU) to assert itself as “a power of the future” and “sovereign” in order to “not to depend on other powers” world. Illustration of this ambition: Mr. Macron wanted Europe to build “a new security order” with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against Russia and advocated for “a frank and demanding dialogue” with Moscow.
“These next few weeks should lead us to bring to fruition a European proposal building a new order of security and stability. We must build it between Europeans, then share it with our allies within the framework of NATO, then then offer it to Russia for negotiation”, he said about it.
Integration of the right to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights
“Faced with the tyranny of anecdote and divisions between Europeans, we have to rediscover the sense of unity”, also pleaded the French president. Since his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has posed as the leader of pro-Europeans in the face of “nationalists” and to “populists”. In his speech, he said that “neither the return to nationalism nor the dissolution of our identities will[aient] the answers to this world which is happening”, marked by “the return of the tragedy of history”. The priority is to defend the rule of law, which “is our treasure” and “everywhere it is a matter of reconquering the peoples who [en] are distant”.
To strengthen this rule of law, Mr. Macron wanted the right to abortion and the protection of the environment to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. It is necessary “update this charter to be more explicit” on these two priorities, he added, while MEPs elected, on Tuesday, a president opposed to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), the Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola.
Abortion falls within the competence of the States and Malta is the only one of the Twenty-Seven where it is completely prohibited. Mme Metsola has, however, undertaken to defend the official positions of Parliament, including on this right. Speaking in French, she also told Mr. Macron that he could ” to count “ on MEPs “to provide answers” to the proposals of the PFUE.
Face-to-face between Yannick Jadot and Emmanuel Macron
Mr Macron assured that this ambition would be reaffirmed throughout the six months of the PFUE, which began on 1er January, although he made no reference to the presidential election in France on April 10 and 24. If he has not yet officially announced his candidacy for a second term, his opponents have not failed to accuse him of using the PFUE to campaign without saying so.
The atmosphere was particularly heated when the ecologist Yannick Jadot, the only presidential candidate in France elected in Strasbourg, took the microphone to strongly criticize Mr. Macron’s record. “Your Europe will never be ours (…). You will go down in history as the president of climate inaction, you prefer to procrastinate (…) rather than sounding the general mobilization”, he launched.
“What a shame to transform this hemicycle into the National Assembly” France, the Macronist leader of the MEPs of the Renew Europe group, the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné, strongly replied to him. Mme Metsola then recalled that it was not a question “not a national debate”.
Another French MEP to intervene, Jordan Bardella (Identity and Democracy group) focused his criticism on immigration, which has become a central theme in the French countryside, affirming that European nations should not “neither disappear, nor be replaced, nor be submerged”. The acting president of the National Rally was followed by another Frenchwoman, the “rebellious” Manon Aubry (left group in the European Parliament), who mocked the French president by “Doctor Emmanuel who made a lot of promises and Mister Macron who doesn’t give a damn about the climate emergency”.
“You said something very right: the French presidency of the European Union should not be an electoral stepping stone, I think you are absolutely right”, replied Mr. Macron. Before adding ironically: “So, to several here, you were right not to. » “You have very methodically said anything about all the European texts that we have signed”, then replied Mr. Macron about Mr. Bardella’s speech. At the end of this debate, the French president must meet with Mme Metsola before a joint press conference.