(euroeleccs2019) Macron seeks support across Europe for election campaign
Macron seeks support across Europe for election campaign
French president’s party aims to build big new group in European Parliament.
By
Updated 3/8/19, 3:38 PM CET
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron's party launched a campaign Thursday to win support across the Continent ahead of May's European Parliament election — even though it's only running in France.
The initiative builds on Macron's call for a new "European Renaissance" published in newspapers around Europe this week. It invites people to back Macron's vision of Europe by signing a petition on bespoke websites for each of the bloc's 28 member states.
"The goal of the European campaign is to create this electric arc of support for Emmanuel Macron's project," Stéphane Séjourné, campaign manager for the president's La République En Marche (LREM) party, told French radio.
The campaign underscores Macron's ambition to build a political movement across Europe, bypassing existing parties in other countries and upending the traditional group structure in the European Parliament. Macron triggered a similar upheaval in France, founding his own centrist movement and confounding traditional parties to win the presidency in May 2017.
The campaign also offers Macron a chance to move beyond the Yellow Jackets anti-government protests, which rocked his presidency over the winter but has dwindled after he offered concessions and launched a series of debates around the country.
Macron talks of "nationalists who hate Europe" over images of his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, Italy's League leader Matteo Salvini and Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Macron had pushed for the European Parliament election to include transnational lists of candidates — a scheme that would have allowed his party to compete for votes across Europe. That proposal was rejected by the Parliament, but the initiative launched Thursday will allow Macron to register supporters around the Continent, even if they can't vote for him.
Macron's party has formed links with the pan-European ALDE alliance of liberal parties, but Séjourné made clear that LREM aims to create a bigger bloc in the parliament.
"We are working on two things: on our group that will be a central group, much broader than [today's] central ALDE group... and there will be the possibility in the European Parliament to do slightly larger agreements," Séjourné added. These agreements would be struck with other political groups, either in the form of long-term alliances or one-offs around specific votes in the Parliament.
The Renaissance websites feature a dramatic emotional appeal, in contrast to the more intellectual case Macron made in his newspaper op-ed, which called for a range of new powers for the EU and new institutions to exercise them.
Macron had pushed for the European Parliament election to include transnational lists of candidates | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
Visitors to the websites are greeted by a video that starts with the sound of a heartbeat before being replaced by images of floods, civil unrest, far-right marchers, migrants and pollution. Macron's impassioned voice tells viewers they face "a simple choice" between a bleak future with nationalists in power or renewing Europe to make it stronger and more democratic.
Macron talks of "nationalists who hate Europe" over images of his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, Italy's League leader Matteo Salvini and Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
"This campaign video sketches out what's at stake in this election, which evidently for us is the rise of populists and nationalists in Europe," Séjourné told French radio.
The party is launching the initiative even before it has unveiled its list of candidates for the election, or who will lead them. Health Minister Agnès Buzyn and Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau are the front-runners to lead the ticket, LREM officials say.
LREM will kickstart its campaign with a rally in Paris on March 30, 15 days after the official end of the "great debates" Macron launched to quell the Yellow Jacket demonstrations.