Against the far right and for Ukraine: the majority launches its European campaign

With the government almost in full with its candidate Valérie Hayer, the majorityé launches Saturday à Lille is launching its European election campaign by targeting the far right, leading in the polls, and its positioning in the conflict in Ukraine.

The stakes are high for the list of Emmanuel Macron's camp and his three parties Renaissance, Horizons and MoDem, 10 points behind in voting intentions by that of the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella.

“It seems complicated that we double them but we have to reduce the gap”, confides a majority executive.

The young head of the RN list, who held his first meeting on Sunday in Marseille, focused his speech on immigration by attacking Emmanuel Macron, accused of being the “great eraser” of France in Europe.

The head of the list and Renaissance MEP Valérie Hayer, unknown to the French and appointed late, should for her part emphasize the “need for Europe”, the official slogan of the campaign, after the health crisis and the war in Ukraine, by questioning the support of its opponents for this country invaded by Russia.

The executive has not stopped attacking the RN for several weeks on its leniency or even its proximity to Vladimir Putin's Russia.

“The main subject (of Europeans) will be on support for Ukraine”, said the leader of the Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard on Friday, accusing the RN of being “the transmission belt of Vladimir Putin in France”.

– Glucksmann “does not exist” –

Emmanuel Macron, who plans to get involved later in the campaign, called on his ministers to ” fight step by step” and to mobilize against the RN, affirming that there should be “no limits” in France's support for Ukraine, after having raised the hypothesis of sending soldiers to this country .

Comments deemed “irresponsible” by the oppositions who should give voice during the debate – followed by a vote – on this conflict organized Tuesday in Parliament, at the end of which the executive intends to remove the masks of its opponents as the vote approaches.

The head of the Socialist Party list for the European elections Raphaël Gluckmann in Bordeaux, March 7, 2024 © AFP – Christophe ARCHAMBAULT

The strategy questions certain allies: targeting the RN “it can weaken the point” and “highlight them”, notes a MoDem deputy, who is also not inclined to make Ukraine “a campaign issue”.

In addition to the RN, Valérie Hayer will be keen to rally the voters of the center left, who were those of the original macronie.

But scalded by the law on immigration which shifted the debate to the right, they could be attracted by the list of the Socialist Party led by Raphaël Glucksmann.

The PS candidate credited with 10% of voting intentions “does not exist”, decides a leading minister, when Valérie Hayer accuses him of being “subservient to the PS”, himself “under the control” of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France insoumise.

– “Get him on board” –

She could also attack LFI, which Sylvain Maillard accuses of courting “the anti-Semitic electorate” through the European candidacy of Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, attacked for statements on the Israel-Hamas conflict.< /p>

This will be the first major public exhibition for Valérie Hayer. She “has a great mastery of the subjects”, praises a Renaissance MP, who nevertheless counts on Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal to “get her on board” in the campaign train and compensate for her lack of notoriety.

The head of the Renaissance list and MEP Valérie Hayer traveling to a dairy farm in Chemere-Le-Roi, March 1, 2024 © AFP – Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS

“If our head of the list is better than last time, and if our Prime Minister is capable of remobilizing our base, it may be less bad than expected”, estimates a close friend of Emmanuel Macron.

The allies François Bayrou for the MoDem and Edouard Philippe for Horizons will also speak, as well as the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, elected from the department, against a backdrop of battles to come for the presidential election.

In the corridors of the Grand Palais, there will also be question of the composition of the list, which is not finished and is causing tensions.

Will the former environmentalist and Renaissance MEP Pascal Canfin appear there at the end of an agricultural crisis that the government is struggling to put out? And who has awakened another cleavage with the RN.

The president of the center-right UDI party Hervé Marseille, in discussions for candidates from his party to join the list, will not be present, held in Paris by the National Council of his movement, ally of the right in the Senate.

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