Brussels, my darling? Panic over French vote

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Our guests this week are Klaus Welle, former Secretary General of the European Parliament and now at the Wilfried Martens Centre, Éric Maurice, policy analyst at the European Policy Centre, and Maria Tadeo, EU correspondent in Brussels.

The French parliamentary elections did not result in the expected shift to the right among voters, but rather in a surprisingly strong performance by the left and President Macron’s centrists. The formation of a government now seems complicated. Is France facing chaos or even a crisis?

We discuss how Brussels assesses the result and how the economy and financial markets react.

“I believe France is ready to face reality,” said Klaus Welle.

“If there were a huge additional mountain of debt as a result of the extreme left’s program, we would be in serious trouble,” he said, adding that France was “simply too big to fail.”

Éric Maurice played down the possibility of a government led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing party, La France Incontro, saying: “He is not the leader of the New Popular Front coalition. The program must be watered down in the light of reality and the coalition partners.”

“He will not be prime minister. That will not happen,” he concluded.

Although the economy is fragile, high public spending is generally expected from the state in France, Maurice added.

“People forget that a lot of money was put on the table to help them during the pandemic and the energy crisis,” he said. “But now all they see is debt and that life is more expensive.”

Maria Tadeo reminded the panel that in France, “the state of the economy was already being questioned before the elections. The pressure on the French government has obviously been going on for at least a year.”

The panelists also reacted to the elections in the UK, where voters inflicted a defeat on the Conservatives after 14 years in power.

As Keir Starmer’s Labour Party seeks to successfully achieve Brexit with friendly support from Brussels, we wonder whether this will put an end to London’s isolation in Europe.

“Brexit is still an issue of enormous importance in Britain, but it was not an issue in the elections. For the EU, Brexit happened a long time ago. A deal is a deal. The debate about a new deal with Britain will not take place,” said Tadeo.

Finally, the panel discussed the latest figures from the European Travel Commission, which show that tourism has recently returned to pre-Covid levels. Our guests discuss whether it is possible to travel sustainably and in an environmentally friendly way.

Watch “Brussels, My Darling?” in the player above.