Marine Le Pen has a secret ‘Frexit’ plan to follow Britain out of the European Unionand create a right-wing alliance with Poland and Hungary, according to French president Emmanuel Macron.
The head of state made the claim in the middle of an election campaign that could see Ms Le Pen taking his job within two weeks.
‘She wants to leave but dare not dare say so, and that’s never good’ said Mr Macron, as he discussed his bitter rival’s policies towards the EU at a rally in eastern France.
‘She says that she wants an alliance of nation states, but she is going to find herself in a corner and she is going to try to come up with an alliance with her friends.’
Mr Macron said French voters were too loyal to Europe to accept a ‘Frexit’, and so Ms Le Pen would attack the bloc from within after teaming up with the populist governments ‘in Poland and Hungary’.
‘It would be a strange club,’ said Mr Macron.
‘I don’t think it is a club that would be good for France. I don’t think it would be good for Europe.’
Mr Macron is a passionate Europhile who once described Brexit as ‘a crime’ delivered by dishonest politicians.
‘The EU has changed the life of this country,’ said Mr Macron, as he directly accused Ms Le Pen of ‘talking rubbish’ about it.
He said she would follow the example of former Prime Minister David Cameron and set up a Frexit referendum, but even if she lost she would attempt to destroy the EU from within.
In reference to his French presidential election head-to-head with Le Pen on Sunday week, Mr Macron said: ‘This election is a referendum on Europe.’
Mr Macron was speaking in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is based, on Tuesday night.
He said that the ‘Long Live Europe!’ chant of is supporters was a ‘cry of hope and of pride’.
Mr Macron added: ‘Europe is a space of peace, culture and democratic values but it is threatened,’ and that nationalism is war’.
During a walkabout before the rally, Mr Macron also compared Ms Le Pen to former U.S. president Donald Trump, who once called for the use of hydroxychloroquine to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Macron said: ‘I do not forget what Marine Le Pen said during the health crisis. She wanted to treat everyone with hydroxychloroquine and she wanted to vaccinate everyone with a Russian vaccine that the World Health Organisation said was inefficient.’
Ms Le Pen once insisted she would take France out of the EU, but she has since confirmed that she wants to soften it from within.
‘A people’s initiative referendum,’ is her current policy, she said last night. If the French want to withdraw from the EU ‘it’s up to them,’ she said.
The National Rally leader wants to establish national border controls on imports and people, reduce the French contribution to the EU budget and cease to recognize that European law has primacy over national law.
She has proposed removing taxes on hundreds of goods and wants to reduce taxes on fuel – which would go against the EU’s free market rules and efforts to fight climate change.
Although Le Pen has excised Frexit from her platform, her hostility toward the EU is still clear. Speaking to France Inter radio, Le Pen said Tuesday that ‘a large majority of French people no longer want the European Union as it exists today.’
She accused the bloc of acting ‘in an absolutely anti-democratic way,’ and refuted charges that her policies would amount to a French exit from the EU.
Instead, she said the EU can be changed ‘from within.’
Experts say a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU.
Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Le Pen has built close links with the Kremlin over the years.
In her previous bid to become the French president in 2017, she called for strong security ties with Moscow to jointly combat radical Islamic groups.
She also pledged to recognize Crimea – the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – as part of Russia.
Le Pen acknowledged Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has ‘partially’ changed her views about Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was ‘wrong’ and expressing her support for the Ukrainian people and refugees.
She accused the bloc of acting ‘in an absolutely anti-democratic way,’ and refuted charges that her policies would amount to a French exit from the EU.
Instead, she said the EU can be changed ‘from within.’
Experts say a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU.
Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The far-right candidate is closing the gap with Macron ahead of the second round of the country’s presidential election according to a new poll.
The OpinionWay-Kea Partners poll published by Les Echos and Radio Classique on Tuesday showed Le Pen narrowing the gap by one point as voter turnout continued to fall, although Macron would still win the run-off with 54 per cent of the vote.
The poll’s turnout estimate further declined by 1 per cent to 70 per cent, down from 74.56 per cent in 2017, which was already the lowest since 1969.
Le Pen secured a run-off against the president in the French elections after she received 23.15 per cent of the vote in the first round on Sunday, just four points behind Macron and the best-ever showing by a far-right party.
The two will now face off in a head-to-head battle on April 24, with pollsters predicting a far closer showdown than their 2017 battle, with the National Rally leader currently forecast to take 49 per cent of the vote in the second round, well within the margin of error for victory.
source:dailymail