Six elements to understand the "Europe of Nations" that Marine Le Pen wants

Victor Chabert 8:03 a.m., April 14, 2022

DECRYPTION

Since last Sunday, in the match between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, the two candidates have been fighting over the European question.

If Emmanuel Macron wants a stronger, more sovereign European Union, Marine Le Pen, after having abandoned the idea of ​​leaving it, is now promoting "Europe of the Nations".

But what does that imply?

Europe 1 returns to the six essential points to understand.

Why do you want the primacy of national law over European law?

Marine Le Pen wants national law to take precedence over European law.

She explained it during her press conference on her foreign policy in these words: "if European rules oppose the constitution, they are not intended to apply in French law".

In the Marinist vision, the interest is above all to regain legislative sovereignty on very specific points, such as the management of migratory flows.

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But also to counter the European Commission, which according to her, arrogates powers unforeseen by the treaties.

A position particularly advocated by Poland, an infringement procedure has also been launched by Brussels against Warsaw following judgments of the Polish Constitutional Court challenging the primacy of European law.

What impact on the institutions of the European Union?

None on paper.

In the current project, Marine Le Pen does not want changes to the institutions of the European Union.

But the candidate wants to change the way it works, and in her sights is, again, the Commission.

According to one of the eminences grises of the campaign, the objective "is to regain control of the Commission's agenda" so that "Europe returns to its mission, aid for the States rather than constraint".

For this, the RN sees the law as a balance of power, which they want to establish with Brussels, and intend to return to a Gaullist position, summed up by a relative with a sentence: "if I do not agree, it nothing happens".

Promoting cooperation between States

If Marine Le Pen assumes that she wants to see the powers of the Commission restricted, she does not however plan to stop cooperation between States.

This is also the heart of its Europe of Nations.

During her press conference on her diplomatic policy, she declared that she wanted new industrial cooperation, in particular on the models of Airbus or Ariane, and why not in other sectors, citing a "European commissioner of the sea".

The return of borders and the Schengen Area?

If Marine Le Pen has long defended the exit from Schengen, this is no longer the case.

Sign of the strong change of line, an adviser slipped "wanting to leave Schengen is posture for people who do not want to govern".

If Marine Le Pen still wants the borders restored, she wants to use the mechanisms offered by the Schengen texts, in particular the temporary return of internal border controls, before negotiating a new treaty.

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In this new agreement, Marine Le Pen wants to put an end to the free movement of non-EU foreigners, the establishment of checks where possible (airports, stations, etc.), and random checks on other places of passage ( on the roads for example).

For cross-border commuters, the RN provides specific measures to simplify round trips.

The drop in the French contribution to the EU budget

This is one of the last battles between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

The president-candidate pointed to his proposal to reduce the French contribution to the Union budget: "Marine Le Pen does not want to pay the club's bill, and wants to change the club's rules on her own. She wants to leave the club. 'Europe but don't dare to say it anymore'.

The candidate indeed proposes five billion euros of reduction of the said contribution.

According to Marine Le Pen's team, this would be done through negotiation, as the Netherlands has done previously.

They had managed to obtain a large discount, dividing their net contribution by three.

And the euro?

No more question for Marine Le Pen to leave the single currency.

According to his team, what motivated this choice is an inflection of the European Central Bank itself, in particular by the purchase of public debt securities, or even the taking into account of the euro-dollar parity.

But the RN is now pushing for the ECB to directly finance state investments, and to include economic growth and the reduction of unemployment in its objectives.