Elections in all 27 EU countries to be held this weekend - populism is leading everywhere
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen isnโt on the ballot at the weekendโs European Parliament election, but sheโs likely to emerge as one of its biggest winners.
Polls expect her National Rally party to be the top vote-getter in France, trouncing President Emmanuel Macronโs moderate pro-business party. And across Europe, the anti-immigration, nationalist ideas Le Pen has long championed are gaining ground.
The June 6-9 elections in all 27 EU countries will shift the makeup of the European Parliament and policy-making in the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, likely further toward the right and far right. And that could boost Le Pen's chances of winning Franceโs presidency in 2027, a long-time dream.
The National Rallyโs lead European Parliament candidate Jordan Bardella is riding high on promises to limit free movement of migrants within the EU's open borders, ease up EU pressure on Russia and dial back EU climate rules.
โWe stand by the idea of rethinking the European model around the idea of nations. Macronโs Europe is a model of the past,โณ Bardella said at a Paris rally Sunday.
Macronโs pro-EU movement meanwhile is flailing, and its chief candidate Valerie Hayer has struggled to make a mark. Thatโs troubling for Macron as he tries to lead Europe-wide efforts to defend Ukraine and boost the EUโs own defenses and industry.
More popular Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is now joining Hayer at rallies, warning voters that hard-fought post-war European unity โ and democracy itself -โ is under threat by rising authoritarianism.
โโEurope is mortal, because war knocks on our door as bombs are being dropped on Ukraine, on democracy, on our values, and because we know that if Russia wins it wonโt stop there,โณ Attal said at a rally last week.
He said Europe knows "it canโt rely on the U.S. eternally and needs to protect itself โฆ because challenges are multiplying, climate change, big tech, AI, and we can only face them together, the 27 of us.โ
While EU voters are choosing members of the European Parliament, many are making decisions based on national concerns โ and in France, many are expected to use their ballots to express frustration with Macronโs management of the economy, the farm sector, or security in a country about to host the high-risk Paris Olympics.
On the left, polls show a surprising resurgence of Franceโs Socialist Party behind its lead candidate, Raphael Glucksmann, who pledges more ambitious climate policy and protections for European businesses and workers.
Macron sidelined Franceโs once-powerful Socialists and mainstream conservative Republicans when he rose to power in 2017 by staking out a middle ground. But frustration among left-wing voters with Macronโs toughening security and immigration policies, and with the staunch pro-Palestinian stance of the influential far-left France Unbowed party, has driven some back toward the traditional Socialists.
Russia's president, Gulf leaders and other oil powers can โโcut supplies of gas or oil, but they canโt prevent the wind from blowing in (the French Atlantic town of) Saint-Nazaire and the sun from shining in Marseille. We will earn our freedom back by completing the environmental transformation,โณ Glucksmann told followers last week.
His fans include office workers like Sรฉbastien Miret, 34.
โWe want a more feminist, more socially conscious, fairer, more environmentalist Europe, and weโre going to fight to the end to see these ideas win,'' he said at a Socialist campaign event. He's tired of the โโmatch between Macron and the far-right. Weโve seen it too many times. Itโs time to move on.โ
Still, it's Le Pen โ runner-up to Macron in the last two presidential elections โ who is expected to benefit the most from Franceโs protest vote, even more so than her party did in the last EU elections in 2019.
In the working-class northern France town of Henin-Beaumont, 19-year-old first-time voter Theo Boulogne urged Le Pen to run again for president in 2027, while 76-year-old retiree Gerard Criquelette praised her and Bardella, saying, โThey both listen to the people.''
Le Pen, whose father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was repeatedly convicted of racism and anti-semitism, no longer calls for extreme measures like quitting the EU and the euro. Instead, she aims to weaken the EU's powers from within.
"Across Europe, national parties are rising up not to destroy the European Union, but to build a European alliance of nations capable of facing up to the industrial, environmental, migratory and technological challenges of the 21st century,โณ Le Pen told party followers. โAcross France and across Europe, we are winning the battle.''
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/frances-win-big-eu-elections-worrying-migrants-macron-110767697