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The right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen could shake up the EU as French president. A look at her party’s program.
Paris – “Frexit”, i.e. France’s exit from the EU, is no longer an explicit option for Marine Le Pen. There is more opportunism behind this than conviction: 73 percent of the country is now in favor of the “projet européen”; even the majority of Le Pen voters are in favor of it. Many complain about Brussels and the euro, but secretly know very well about the advantages for their country.
Implementation of Marine Le Pen’s party programme would mean the end of the European Union
Marine Le Pen gave up on “Frexit” several years ago. She relativizes, differentiates, maneuvers – and advocates a “European alliance of free and sovereign states”. The 55-year-old right-wing populist claims that this puts her in line with the French national hero Charles de Gaulle, who advocated a “Europe of fatherlands” after the Second World War.
What she doesn’t say: If this concept were implemented today, it would not be a “Frexit” but the end of the EU. If you take a closer look at the European programme of the “Rassemblement National” (RN), it all boils down to that. Specifically, RN list leader Jordan Bardella presented a so-called “traffic light” strategy (no connection with the German government) in the recent European election campaign, which would reorganise and classify EU responsibilities:
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A look at RN’s European programme reveals: Schengen idea completely undermined
Green Areas are marked that the RN would continue to leave to the EU. There are not that many: for example, the European study program Erasmus, a European civil protection system for disasters and individual joint industrial or research collaborations, including for hydrogen or batteries.
Orange are issues that, according to Bardella, need to be reformed. The border protection agency Frontex should seal off the external borders, not fish out refugees. According to Bardella, the EU should serve to protect France with a “double border” – around the EU and around the country. The Schengen area should continue to exist, but only for EU citizens. That would undermine the whole Schengen idea.
Is economic policy facing chaos? Single market undermined by “economic patriotism”
In economic policy, it should be possible for member states to protect and subsidize their own companies. Experts fear that there will be complete chaos if, for example, Paris protects the car manufacturer Renault, but Germany refrains from such subsidies and the USA imposes tariffs on the entire EU. Ultimately, the internal market would be undermined by this “economic patriotism.”
Red are the areas in which France should take back full competence from the EU. These include migration management, energy policy including the Green Deal and nuclear power. Bardella also mentions foreign policy and nuclear deterrence, the Force de Frappe. However, these are already regulated nationally, in France, for example, in the hands of the President. Bardella probably mentions these aspects to make it clear that a joint approach by European diplomacy is no longer an option. The main beneficiary of this would be Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long been trying to divide the EU partners. EU expansion towards the Balkans is also out of the question for the RN.
The “tricolour” Green-Orange-Red strategy is very similar to the “à la carte” menu of other nationalists who, as is often criticized, want to help themselves to whatever they want in the EU.
“Frexit inwards”: How Le Pen would reshape the EU
It is often only at second glance that it becomes apparent that Le Pen’s “alliance of nations” would no longer have much to do with the EU. According to the RN program, the member states should draw up a new EU treaty. If they do not do so, Le Pen would call a referendum after her possible election as President of France in 2027 to transfer the “red” issues to national competence. According to Le Pen, the French constitution would also establish the primacy of national law over European jurisdiction.
But a referendum on key EU competencies in France would mean going it alone politically. This “Frexit within” by an EU founding state would inevitably blow up the EU. France would then no longer have to leave the EU – because the latter would no longer exist.
There is only one point on which Le Pen is more moderate than others. Unlike the German AfD, it is fundamentally against the remigration of French citizens of foreign origin. Anyone who is French can stay in France in any case, even if they have not assimilated at all and have committed serious crimes, says Le Pen.