Press

"La UE en tanto que proyecto no se puede permitir una victoria de Marine Le Pen. Porque aunque ella haya bajado el tono por lo que se refiere al Frexit y la salida del euro, su proyecto significa una obstrucción desde dentro, al estilo polaco o húngaro. La diferencia es que no es lo mismo tener este estilo agresivo contra la UE en Polonia y Hungría que en pleno motor franco-alemán", explica a EL ESPAÑOL Camino Mortera-Martínez, directora de la oficina en Bruselas del Centre for European Reform.

Nonetheless, Ian Bond, a senior British diplomat for almost 30 years who is now director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said a Le Pen win could mean the end of France’s historical trans-Atlantic defense role. “The French were quite often quite difficult in NATO discussions,” he said.“But where the French didn’t go was to suggest, ‘Actually the Soviet Union isn’t that dangerous, is it?’ They accepted the case that the Soviet Union was the big problem that we had to face. And if Le Pen doesn’t accept that that is true of Russia, then that is problematic.”

"In negotiating the Digital Services Act, EU law-makers balanced tackling disinformation with protecting free speech. The Commission’s last-minute proposal for stricter regulation of tech platforms during crises undermines this balance," said Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank.

"Le Pen does not specify what military threats France faces, and barely mentions Russia. This perhaps reflects the ambiguity of her relationship with Vladimir Putin," says a report for the think-tank the Centre for European Reform (CER) on what a Le Pen presidency would mean for Europe.

Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, said president Le Pen “would be bad news for France’s relations with its EU and Nato partners, but good news for Putin”.

As Ian Bond and John Springford have argued in an article for the Centre for European Reform, Le Pen's publicly stated “France-first” agenda would potentially cripple the EU from the inside, as well as profoundly weaken the transatlantic alliance.

 “The consequences for the EU would be political chaos,” conclude Ian Bond and John Springford of the Centre for European Reform.

Elisabetta Cornago, a climate expert at the Centre for European Reform, agreed: “Because it increases ambition in climate action, it may nudge other countries that want to cast themselves as climate leaders to follow through.”
However, she added that although “the discussion will have to go there eventually, I am not sure many other countries in the EU are ready to change their approach to national target setting right now.”