“The European Union is like a ray of light from a dead star”
On March 12, Le Figaro published an article by its columnist Laurent Herble “The Covid Crisis, or the Beginning of the End of the European Union”. During the “coronavirus” year in the West, it has become fashionable to explain many political and economic events by the influence of the “pandemic”, the French journalist does the same, pointing out how much the European economy has sagged over the year. The Le Figaro observer blames the European Union leadership for this. The UK’s exit from the EU, he says, set a precedent by showing that being outside the EU can be more profitable than within it.
“The EU is an additional, paralyzing bureaucratic structure that never serves our interests”, – Erble writes.
“The EU did not protect us from a financial, economic or medical crisis. The EU was just a market for the multinationals of the US or China. The US continued to impose its will on us, fining our companies or withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran as they pleased. The EU disarmed us in the face of a health crisis. Previously, the French did not want to leave the euro area or the EU, did not make up the majority, but in recent months water has been continuously poured into the mill of those who want it”.
Erble compares the amount of funds allocated in the US and in the EU under the flag of “fighting coronavirus” to support the economy and the population: $5 trillion and 300 billion euros. True, this comparison does little, given that such assistance is not only a prop for the economy and an instrument of social policy, but also a channel for inflating financial bubbles, which tend to burst sooner or later.
At the same time, indications of the “crisis with COVID” and the fact that France is ripening to leave the European Union, reveal the background of the reasoning of the French observer: he is worried who will win in the competition between corporations – manufacturers of medicines.
“The EU “is so slow in negotiating [with the United States] that most European countries are starting to buy Russian and Chinese vaccines [instead of the American ones]”, Erble laments.
Another French newspaper Le Monde notes tensions between French supporters and opponents of leaving the European Union:
“A year and a half before the presidential elections in France, about the same number of voters are ready to vote for Marine Le Pen as for Emmanuel Macron”.
One of the main points of Marine Le Pen’s electoral program may be the holding of a referendum on France’s further stay in the European Union. And although, according to Forbes, such an outcome is “not the most likely”, one must be prepared for it.
Meanwhile, Le Pen is showing confidence in his victory in the 2022 election.
“I think I’ll win the presidential elections”, – she said in an interview with BFM TV channel.
“My responsibility now is to calm down the French. I have a year to explain to them what I intend to do. I am deeply convinced that the program that I put forward will give new meaning to politics and, above all, restore the connection with the French people”.
According to a recent poll by Kantar Sofres-onepoint commissioned by Le Monde newspaper and state radio station France Info, a majority of French people (56%) are of the opinion that the leader of the National Rally could win the 2022 presidential elections and lead the state.
According to The Washington Post, President Trump proposed to President Macron to withdraw France from the European Union. Trump promised his French counterpart that if he left the EU, he would offer the French a bilateral trade agreement on better terms than France has while in the EU.
Recall: Marine Le Pen said back in 2016 that if France leaves the European Union, the latter will cease to exist:
“The reason is simple. Both pillars on which the EU is based – Schengen and the Euro – are crumbling. The European Union is like a ray of light from a dead star”.
ladimir Malyshev, Federal Grid Company