This edition of European Week focuses on the result of the European elections, which have led President Macron to call early legislative elections, plunging France into political uncertainty. We also address the week of intense diplomatic activity around Ukraine.
Las european elections have ended and the tug of war over future alliances, coalitions and senior positions has begun. In meetings, meetings, and more meetings, the winners and losers of the voters’ verdict began to prepare for the next five years of legislative battles.
We’ll come back to that in a minute. But first: it has been a week of intense diplomatic activity for Ukraine. President Zelensky traveled to Recovery Conference of the country in Berlinto the summit of G7 in the south of Italia already one world peace summit in Swiss.
Zelensky asked short term help for fix the electrical grid Ukrainian, long term investments in its energy system and renewed his requests for More help for repel attacks with Russian missiles.
After thanking the German legislators in the Bundestag his continued support, a defiant Zelensky made it clear what he thinks of engagement with Moscow, and it’s almost nothing: “Russia must be held accountable for war aggression. Russia must remove the ruins. “Russia must pay for all the damage that has occurred in our country,” she said. “We will not allow Russia to continue marching through Europe with its disregard for life,” she said.
At European levelhe support for Ukraine looks insuredsince the European elections gave way to the same majority of centrist parties. At the same time, voters also strengthened the far right, as expected, especially in France.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the National Group, obtained spectacular results and approached the doors of power in Paris. This political earthquake allowed President Emmanuel Macron to call early legislative elections In a few weeks. Some analysts believed it was a risky bet. But Macron called on moderate forces to unite against extremes from right and left:
“I am convinced that some among the Social Democrats, the Radicals (center-left), the Greens, the Christian Democrats, the heirs of Charles de Gaulle (center-right) and, more broadly, many of our fellow citizens and political leaders who do not feel represented by the extremes could work together with their leaders to build a new project“Macron said.
Von der Leyen is preparing to revalidate her mandate as head of the European Commission
To talk about this week’s events we spoke with Jacob Kirkegaardsenior researcher at the German Marshall Fund and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Euronews: The center has resisted in the European elections, and its parties maintain a solid majority. What can we expect now, that everything remains the same?
Cemetery: I think everything will remain the same. I believe, for example, that the process of selecting the next leadership team, that is, the presidencies of the Commission, the Council, the High Representative, etc., will develop quite quickly. I think it will go quite quickly, clearly led by the new appointment, in my opinion, of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the Commission, buoyed by the fact that, the EPP did well, and the CDU did well in Germany. So, although it cannot be said that she has a strong democratic mandate behind her, she does have it better than any other alternative candidate.
Euronews: Assuming the European Parliament re-elects Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President, will she try to reach out to the far right and what impact will that have on her political agenda?
Cemetery: No, I don’t think that’s your first strategy. He still has a majority, based on liberals, center-right and center-left. Furthermore, we must remember that the Green party was one of those that suffered significant losses in these elections. What that means is that the Greens, who will clearly fear that Ursula von der Leyen in a new term will soften aspects of the Green Deal, need to seek influence more than before because they are fewer in number. So if you need to reach out, I would say the Greens would be a much better opportunity because it wouldn’t cost you much, in my opinion, in terms of support within your own party and others.
Euronews: The real surprise, of course, has been the call for early elections by Emmanuel Macron in just a few weeks. What do you expect to happen?
Cemetery: Well, let me guess. The irony here is that the European elections seem to have caused more waves at some national levels, first of all, of course, France. I mean, I think we’re now in that period of acute uncertainty for France. The French parliamentary electoral system is a two-round election. That makes it very difficult to predict. It puts a premium on these party coalition agreements. And we are seeing how they are signed and undone. We saw the Republicans, or at least the leader of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, trying to join Le Pen. We saw similar movements for a new Popular Front on the left. Except that the winner, the most voted for by the left in the European elections, Glucksman, said: “Without me.” So it’s not very clear what’s going to happen.
