As much as the little European world in Brussels was worried to see Marine Le Pen arrive at the Elysée, before the outcome of the French presidential election, the prospect of imagining Jean-Luc Mélenchon, an avowed eurosceptic, at Matignon seems, at this stage, to be pure political fiction. Seen from the capital of the community institutions, it is not the agreement that La France insoumise (LFI) signed with Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party that changes the situation. “The singularity of our political system questions them more than the prospect of seeing the far left come to power worries them”summarizes Sébastien Maillard, director of the Jacques Delors Institute.
In a Europe more familiar with parliamentary regimes, the hexagonal model – the French elected Emmanuel Macron, but may not give him a majority in Parliament – raises many questions. “If ultranationalists on the left and right won a majority in the National Assembly, the only person outside of France who would celebrate would be Putin”nevertheless comments a diplomat, in a personal capacity.
“Ready to disobey”
Even if this scenario today seems highly improbable to France’s partners, cohabitation with the New Popular Ecological and Social Union of Jean-Luc Mélenchon “would isolate France within the European Union [UE]it would no longer be a training wheel”, observes Sébastien Maillard. During the councils of European ministers, the government would be maneuvering, on positions often far removed from those of Emmanuel Macron. On the other hand, at the European Council, which brings together the Heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven, the President would be at the helm.
In the European Parliament, the alliance around LFI, on the other hand, poses real questions. Not so much among the Socialists, who won six seats in Strasbourg after the 2019 European elections and weigh little in the group of Social Democrats (S&D). Nor among the Communists, who have no elected members of the European Parliament. But within the group of the Greens, where the twelve French represent the second delegation after that of Germany.
On the evening of Wednesday May 4, Green MEPs met in Strasbourg to discuss the agreement signed between LFI and EELV a few days earlier. This stipulates that they “we will have to be ready to disobey certain European rules”. What, in theory, to make the allies of EELV jump, very attached to the community treaties, and to fuel the criticisms of the macronist MEPs, who now contest the pro-European pedigree of the French Greens.
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