The RN’s results in France are not seen by European leaders in the same way. European countries in fact showed very different reactions on Monday, even opposing ones for some, after the first round of the legislative elections.
The rise of the extreme right “is really starting to look like a great danger,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine. The former head of the European Council spoke of a “dangerous trend” and his fear that “France could soon become the sick man of Europe, condemned to a confrontation between radical forces.” At the head of a broad centrist and pro-European coalition, Donald Tusk seized power from the nationalist PiS party in Poland last October.
Pedro Sanchez “keeps hope” in the left
In Italy, which is governed by a coalition led by the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the fact that the “demonization” of the far right was less followed. “The constant attempt to demonize people who don’t vote left (…) is a trap that fewer and fewer people are falling into,” she told the Adnkronos agency. “We have seen it in Italy, we see it more and more in Europe and throughout the West.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who heads a left-wing coalition, insisted that he did not take “the victory of the far right for granted.” “I remain hopeful that the French left will mobilize” for the second round, he told Cadena Ser radio, saying that to counter the far right it was necessary to “bet on progressive policies” and govern “as Spain has been doing for six years” under his leadership.
Berlin worries about its “best friend”
Berlin, through its head of diplomacy, has let slip its concern for the EU, recalling that “Germany and France bear a particular responsibility for our common Europe”. “No one can remain indifferent (…) if in our very close partner and best friend, a party that sees Europe as the problem and not the solution comes out on top,” declared Annalena Baerbock in Berlin.
In the east of the continent, in Russia, the Kremlin has informed him that it is following “very closely the elections in France”. “We are waiting for the second round, but the preferences of French voters are more or less clear to us,” said its spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
