As a man who brings Europe together and drives it forward – this is how Emmanuel Macron wanted to present himself in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

He wrote friendly words in the guest book when he arrived in Strasbourg in the morning: "Good luck to the institution that is working to build our future." But their reaction was anything but friendly.

Allegations and accusations rained down on the French President.

That he was a "splitter", a "master of duplicity", a "president of contempt".

And it wasn't just MEPs from the far right who made statements like this, but also Greens and Leftists who see themselves as part of the "pro-European majority".

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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Probably never before has a head of state or government been tackled as harshly and relentlessly as Macron was on that day, neither Silvio Berlusconi nor Viktor Orbán.

It was revenge by Macron's domestic opponents for a Council presidency that coincides with the presidential election.

They turned the European Parliament into an election campaign arena and used a debate about the Council Presidency's priorities for the next six months to get a straight deal with the French president.

Apparently they had been given free rein by their factions.

Heavy attacks from the right wing and left wing

For the Greens, Yannick Jadot stepped up to the lectern to respond to Macron's introductory speech. This first round was reserved for the group leaders. Macron also spoke to Jadot as "Monsieur le Président" – but he is not a chairman at all, but a simple member of parliament. Now, however, Jadot spoke as the French Greens' presidential candidate. "You will go down in history as the President who did nothing to combat climate change," he rumbled. When it comes to nuclear power, Macron is making pacts with Poland and Hungary. Then it was about how to deal with migrants on the Channel coast.

"Why do you decide every day to tear down tents in Calais, humiliate these survivors, mistreat them and condemn them to despair," Jadot cried, waving his hands wildly as the Liberals, Macron's own people, began to boo and protest . "It's a shame to turn this plenary hall into the National Assembly," complained her group leader Stéphane Séjourné, a close confidante of the president.

However, it continued with undiminished severity. Next, Jordan Bardella spoke from the right-wing faction ID, also not a chairman, but a politician from the Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen's party. “Will the muezzin call in Cologne tomorrow? Will the majority of the population in Belgium and the Netherlands listen to Erdogan or the king of Morocco?” Bardella asked and in the same breath accused Macron of denying the French the legitimate right to be a people. The pact to reform migration and asylum, which the president had previously advocated, is a "state coup" because it disempowers national governments.

This attack from the right wing was followed by that from the left wing, again by a Frenchwoman.

"Your European record is arrogance, impotence and trickery," fumed Manon Aubry, co-leader of the Left and politician of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Indomitable France party.

"They protect the multinationals and the billionaires, not the weakest," she told the president.

He despises his people, she said, recalling their vulgar announcement that he wanted to "get on the balls" of the unvaccinated.