The president and the Prime Minister at the same time in Brussels, Marine Le Pen not far behind: an unprecedented French trio appeared Thursday in the EU capital on the sidelines of a European summit.
Michel Barnier was the first to appear at the meeting of the group of leaders and MEPs of his political color, the European People’s Party (EPP, right), following in the footsteps of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EPP has once again been present in force at the Commission since the June European elections.
The head of the French government, appointed on September 5 after the earthquake of the dissolution of the Assembly, has not made any declaration, while many are wondering about the sharing of roles with Emmanuel Macron concerning European issues in a situation of semi-cohabitation.
At the same time, Marine Le Pen, emblematic figure of the National Rally, arrived at the first summit meeting of Patriots for Europe, the new radical right group of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Emmanuel Macron closed the French political ballet by attending the meeting of his party, Renew (center), before joining the summit of the Twenty-Seven, where he will continue to represent France alone.
A priori, nothing but routine on a European Council day with the “pre-summit” group meetings. Except that usually only the president makes the trip. And that the leader of the RN deputies in the Assembly is not intended to come to Brussels on every occasion.
Neither does the Prime Minister, except pure cohabitation where he then holds the majority in Parliament and attends alongside the Head of State at the European summit.
Michel Barnier therefore inaugurated a new formula, not at the summit but at the group meeting, with his LR (Republicans) cap.
If everyone remained in their role, the presence of Marine Le Pen, who promised to keep the Barnier government “under surveillance”, particularly on immigration, thanks to her power of censorship, did not go unnoticed.
On this subject, which will be a big part of the summit, “it would seem that faced with reality” the EU leaders are “little by little coming out of denial”, she said, defending the same line as Viktor Orban.
The boss of RN MEPs and president of the “Patriots”, Jordan Bardella, for his part denounced the “double discourse of Michel Barnier and his Minister of the Interior (Bruno) Retailleau”.
They are multiplying “very harsh announcements on immigration in France undoubtedly to please” the RN, “a few days before the budget vote and the other is rushing to Brussels to implement the pact for migration which will accelerate migratory flows in Europe,” he asserted.
The Patriots now constitute the third force in the European Parliament behind the pro-European right (EPP) and the social democrats, and ahead of Renew.
■
