Eurosceptic anti-immigration parties across Europe are planning to join forces after the parliamentary elections, which are widely expected to reshape the bloc’s political landscape. “Emmanuel Macron has been hit by the enfant roi [spoilt child] syndrome … he thinks he has absolute power and has no respect for the rules … his behaviour is deeply anti-Republican,” Mrs Le Pen, the leader of the hard-right Rassemblement national (RN) party, told reporters in Milan. Mrs Le Pen then described her party’s track record in the European parliament in the last five years as “fantastic,” adding that her MEPs had allowed citizens to breathe new life into European integration.
“We did a fantastic job,” Mrs Le Pen said. “We have, with our allies, given the people of Europe the opportunity to have a say in the building of the bloc and deeply reorient it.”
She was responding to an earlier claim by Mr Macron, who said that the record of Mrs Le Pen’s party in the EU parliament in the last five years was a “disaster”.
“I’m not of those who think it’s no problem if the Rassemblement national is once again the big winner of these elections,” the 41-year-old centrist told reporters in Biarritz on Friday.
“They are the incumbents. And what did the incumbents do? They voted against every project supported by France, he continued. “On all sorts of issues, their record is a disaster for the country and for Europe.”
With polls showing Mr Macron’s République en Marche (REM) party and Mrs Le Pen’s RN running neck-and-neck, the French leader has personally thrown himself into the campaign in an effort to drum up support.
In the last European elections in 2014, Mrs Le Pen’s RN – then known as the Front National – came out on top in France, winning nearly 25 per cent of the vote, a result pollsters put down to low turnout and the fact the vote is often treated as a protest ballot.
Created after the last EU elections, Mr Macron’s REM currently has no lawmakers in the EU chamber but polls show it could win about a fifth of France’s seats.
Losing to Mrs Le Pen’s RN would be a huge blow for Mr Macron, who has sought to position himself as Europe’s new strongman and pushed for deeper integration and reform.
Such a defeat would inevitably erode his influence and authority in Brussels.
Widely framed as a bitter contest between far-right populists who want to stop immigration and globalisation and pro-EU liberals calling for a stronger, more united bloc, the vote will be critical in shaping the course of the EU for the next five years.
France’s vote will be held on Sunday, May 26, with 74 seats in the parliament up for grabs amid high expectations that this election will see significant gains for eurosceptic parties across Europe, with nationalist candidates in Britain, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Austria and Poland all expected to perform strongly.