‘He stands ALONE!’ Macron on brink of DIVIDING EU over migration policy

The hardline right-winger accused the young centrist of wanting to “divide” the European Union, before positioning himself as the defender of European unity.

Mr Wauquiez, the head of the conservative Les Républicains party, told French broadcaster BFM TV: “The European Parliament elections will pit those who want a European Union that protects its borders against those who share Mr Macron’s view that migrants must be [welcomed with open arms and] redistributed across the bloc.”

Leaders from across the political spectrum, “including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” have acknowledged and the urgent need to curb irregular migration to Europe, he continued.

He said: “The truth is that we cannot take in more migrants and have long exceeded our integration capacities. That’s what the vast majority of European leaders are saying.

“But that’s not what Mr Macron is saying, which is why he stands increasingly alone [in the migration crisis].

“I want to unite Europe, and not divide it, which is exactly what the president of the Republic is doing.”

The European elections are already being billed as a tense battle between liberal, pro-Europe parties like Mr Macron’s La République en Marche and more conservative and populist groups, with the need to stem illegal migration to the bloc as the defining issue.

The elections are important because they can determine who leads the major EU institutions, including the European Commission, the bloc’s powerful executive arm.

Asked to comment on Mr Orban’s new anti-immigration alliance with Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, the French conservative said that he and the hardline Italian have diverging views of Europe.

He said: “Mr Salvini and I have our differences, mainly because his views on the euro and on European construction are too ambiguous.”

Mr Orban and Mr Salvini vowed last month to work together ahead of the European elections to pursue a tougher approach to migrants in search of a better life in Europe.

Both have called for a new commission and parliament that stand up for the protection of borders and stop illegal immigration.

Mr Orban’s right-wing government has built a fence along Hungary’s southern borders to keep out migrants, while Mr Salvini has banned charity-run rescue ships from docking at Italian ports.