The intention of the French President Emmanuel Macron to form a new parliamentary group in the European Parliament is widely discussed. But the question concerning the potential allies of La Republique En Marche (REM) party remains fundamental.
But the new parliamentary group’s ambition will not be limited to the aim to be the third or the fourth large party in the EP. Macron would like to create a strong, respectable and influential group.
Taking into consideration the above, REN would need to attract political parties from more than seven EU member states. But if REN wants to establish a powerful group then it needs much more parties from more countries.
Until now the potential candidates are the Citizens (Ciudadanos) party in Spain, the Save Romania Union (USR) and Progressive Slovakia (PS).
Now a new proposal arrived through Pascal Canfin, number two on Macron’s list of candidates for the EU elections, Reuters reports.
“We’ll champion a coalition deal and clearly we’ll offer the European Greens the opportunity to join,” Carfin told France Inter radio.
Is such a perspective possible?
The idea seems at least very difficult. The Green parties which are actually electorally successful, act in Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and even in France the Green list seems to grow its influence and they don’t belong to the liberal family.
What is more, a day after the publication of Macron’s ambitious “European Renaissance” op-ed on March 5, the European Green Party co-chairs Monica Frassoni and Reinhard Bütikofer reacted to Macron’s initiative in a quite negative way:
“By now addressing European citizens in all 28 member states directly asking them to support some very French positions, on one hand Macron tries to enhance his European profile and on the other wants to be seen by French voters as their champion still. Macron’s initiative is a campaign move, which is fine, but it is unclear how much it will indeed be helpful to achieve the proclaimed goals.”
