With his ideas for the future of Europe, the French President woke up the election loser Marine Le Pen.
“Emmanuel Macron has called for the end of unanimity decisions in the EU.
That means the end of the sovereignty of the member states,” she criticized.
Michael Wiegel
Political correspondent based in Paris.
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Le Pen had withdrawn from the public eye since election night and was absent from the far right's traditional wreath-laying ceremony on May 1 at the equestrian statue of Joan of Arc.
Le Pen saw Macron's speech to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg as proof that Macron was "submitting to the wishes of Madame von der Leyen" and that he was fleeing forward to federalism "which our people do not want".
She said it was her job to protect and defend France's sovereignty.
She was outraged by the decision to let the blue flag with the yellow wreath of stars flutter under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Europe Day.
Had she become president, she would have banned the EU flag from her official portrait and from public spaces.
With the EU criticism, she enters the election campaign.
On the 12th and 19th
In June, the French will elect the 577 deputies to the National Assembly.
The 53-year-old politician is standing again in her constituency in Hénin-Beaumont in the former coal basin of northern France.
criticism of Germany
The leftist tribune, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also included the Strasbourg speech as a declaration of political struggle.
The 70-year-old member of the Left Party LFI made a name for himself at the beginning of the legislative period by wanting to remove the EU flag from the National Assembly.
Now he wants to lead a “new people's union” with a program of “disobedience” against the EU, to win a parliamentary majority and force Macron to appoint him prime minister.
Macron himself admitted in Strasbourg that the EU treaties were "outdated" and therefore "obsolete", commented Mélenchon on Tuesday.
From his point of view, Macron thus confirms the reasons for the "disobedience" of the new "People's Union" of Left Party, Greens, Communists and Socialists.
“The main argument against the People's Union collapses.
too weird"
said Melenchon.
In the speech he does not want to have discovered much that was new.
Macron already promised a contract change in the Sorbonne speech.
"Nothing happened.
Mainly because of the systematic refusal of the German government,” said Mélenchon.
The most suspicious thing he saw was the fact that Macron didn't mention a single syllable about changing the budgetary rules of the Stability Pact.
Mélenchon pointed to the federal government behind this amazing silence.
In December, Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had argued in an opinion piece in the Financial Times that "structural investments" should be exempted from the three percent budget deficit rule.
Macron no longer dares to press ahead with the budget rules because he was called off by Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
"Even as part of a treaty change, France does not want to propose any change (to the budget and debt rules)," criticized Mélenchon.
Macron's supporters like European hopes
Macron deliberately seeks confrontation with EU opponents from the right and left.
On Tuesday, the election campaign of the three parties supporting the president got underway in Aubervilliers on the outskirts of Paris.
Under the banner "Ensemble" ("Together") they want to win the voters' favor with a decidedly pro-European program.
That could work, Macron's supporters are always particularly motivated when, as in Strasbourg, he exudes European hope - especially in times of war.
“Act strong, move fast, dream big,” he summarized his ambition at the end of the future conference.
"These words are not exclusive to China and the United States," he said.
Precisely because the people in Ukraine dream of a European future, he doesn't want to discourage them in a long, bureaucratic admission process.
The EU member states are now so deeply intertwined, their economic structures so closely integrated, that war-torn Ukraine will not be able to achieve these standards "in just a few years".
In his remarks, Macron was visibly inspired by a policy paper presented to him by the President of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris, Enrico Letta.
“We must not repeat the mistakes made after 1989.
At that time, the countries of the former Eastern bloc were forced to wait 15 to 18 years before joining the EU.
And that despite the brilliant entry of East Germany through reunification.
This never-ending uncertainty fueled a frustration that persists to this day, expressed in distrust and misunderstanding,” Letta wrote.
Macron therefore wants to set up a “European political community” in order to be able to immediately make an offer to Ukraine, but also to Moldova and Georgia.
Ukraine "fights and takes risks" for European values, Macron said in Berlin.
He announced that he and his German partner, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, would like to discuss this new form of cooperation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Noticeably relaxed, he praised "the power and importance of Franco-German friendship".
He promised: "In the next few years we will "do great things." After dinner, Macron and Scholz walked together to the Brandenburger Ton, which was bathed in the Ukrainian national colors.
The next stage could be a trip to Kyiv.