The duel between French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen once again worries the European Union. The second round, scheduled for April 24, will be a repeat of 2017, when the two candidates faced off at the ballot box and Macron was victorious.

Brussels did not comment on Sunday’s first-round result, but it is clear that the presidential elections in France, a country crucial to European integration, were decisive for the bloc.

Currently, France is in charge of the rotating presidency of the European Union and the defeat of Le Pen against the European bloc and NATO will not only strengthen France’s support for the EU, but will also help to lessen the specter of the distant world. TRUE. on the mainland.

The re-election of Hungary’s prime minister, ultranationalist Viktor Orbán, for the fourth consecutive week last week has been a major setback for Brussels. “Depending on populism and xenophobia, this is not France,” Macron said after the result of the first round.

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In 2017, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said at the time that if he won the election, he would hold a referendum on a possible “Frexit” that would mean France’s departure from Europe. b In addition, Le Pen had plans to abandon the euro and regain control of the borders to stop immigration.

These ideas no longer seem to drive his agenda, but in this 2022 election, the RN (National Unification) party candidate insists that French law must prevail over European Union rules, thus challenging the bloc’s highest court.

Le Pen tried to soften his image to go to the second round of the French elections. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, “Le Pen, personality smiling – posing with their pet cats and being harassed by teenagers for picking them up selfies on the street – and the radical reality of the far right, the anti-immigration manifesto to keep France for the French.”

“He has promised a referendum to amend the Constitution to restrict the rights of immigrants and foreigners. Le Pen plans to prioritize locals over non-natives over housing, employment, and health. He wants to abolish the citizenship rights of children born and raised in France by foreign parents,” he said. The newspaper continues. “The fact that Le Pen is now closer to power than ever is partly a result of reformulating its own political strategy.”

Some MPs from different political groups in the European Parliament urged the French to mobilize and stop the far right in France.

real threat

Marine Le Pen poses a real threat to the European Union and NATO. In the next two weeks, until the second round of the French election, both institutions will closely monitor the final phase of the presidential campaign.

Brussels fears that France, one of the founding countries and driving forces of the European bloc, will fall into the hands of the Eurosceptic far right. Between his words, the RN (National Meeting) leader made clear the desire of France, the only nuclear power in the European Union, not to join NATO anymore, “so that we are no longer stuck in conflicts that do not belong to us anymore “, he declared.

Although Le Pen denounces Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has good relations with the Kremlin and in 2014 took out a €9 million loan from a Russian bank for his party. In these elections, the Le Pen family, whose father Jean-Marie competed against the then President Jacques Chirac in 2002 and lost, has never been closer to power.

Opinion polls believe the close race in the second round has made forecasts difficult, despite President Emmanuel Macron’s slight advantage.