THE FRENCH FRONT NATIONAL AND THE EU : UNREAL AND PHANTASMATIC

The French National Front wants a Europe that is respectful of popular sovereignties, national identities, languages and cultures and that is really at the service of the peoples by concrete actions. Their project is both unreal and phantasmatic !

According to a recent opinion poll 24% of French citizens would vote for the list of the Front National for the European elections ahead of all other parties. This means that one quarter of the French voters are intent on destroying Europe.

Here below is what their vote would mean for Europe. Please note that all sentences in quotes correspond to the true statements made by leaders of the Front National that have simply been translated into English so people all over Europe who don’t understand French can truly grasp the significance of such destructive programme.

1.  "Within the remit of Article 50* of the European Union Treaty, it is essential to initiate a renegotiation of the treaties in order to break with the dogmatic European construction which is a complete failure."
2. " The net contribution of France to the European budget will need to equal zero in order to generate margins for the support namely of our agriculture."
3. " French law will regain its superiority over secondary European law (directives, regulations etc..). These elements will be subject to discussions with our European partners within the framework of the necessary renegotiation of European treaties. France will uphold its doctrine in case negotiations fail."
4. " All public buildings in France of central or local administrations will have to carry the French flag permanently. The flag of the European Union will no longer be authorized."
5. " The transposition of directives pertaining to the liberalization of public market services will cease."
6. " A renegotiation of the European treaties concerning public services will put an end to the dogma of ‘free and undistorted competition and the obligation to liberalize public services."
7. "The application of the European directives concerning public services will be frozen namely regarding rail transport and postal services."
8. " France will abandon the Common Agricultural Policy to the benefit of the French Agricultural Policy which will allow a strategic development more justly spread between small and large agricultural structures. This ambitious national agricultural policy will be financed by the reduction of France's global contribution to the European budget within the framework of the renegotiation of the European treaties."
9. " Creation of a 'Conservatory of the wine heritage' and refusal for grubbing-up of vines  as demanded by the European Union."
10. " France will  seek to reverse all absurd constraints imposed by the European Union which forbids in the name of misguided competition any real industrial policy. In particular a renegotiation of the treaties will put an end to the dogma of a free and non distorted competition that in reality promotes the law of the jungle."
11. "The access to procurement by SMEs and SMIs will be simplified via the centralization on a single site of all public tenders and a law that will give priority to the SMEs and SMIs in the attribution of tenders  by the state and local authorities (equivalent to the American Small Business Act), after renegotiation of the European treaties that hinder them  currently."
12. "In order to accompany the exit of the Euro, a Ministry in charge of Sovereignties will take charge technically and legally of the renegotiation of the treaties and the recovery of our national sovereignty in all areas where it has disappeared namely in the monetary area. An exceptional tax on external assets in euros held by banks will be established to compensate the costs for the state of its residual debt in euro in the unlikely case where the Euro would still exist."
13. " France must prepare with its European partners the return to national currencies which will permit to make competitive devaluations. The Franco-German couple can play a major role to get out of the economic slump.”
14. " We do not wish to call Europe into question but rather the European Union so that the treaties are profoundly renegotiated and that a non-sense like Schengen can be denounced."
15. " France must regain control of its borders in preference within a free association of European states that share the same vision and the same interests on subjects such as immigration or the rules that must govern external exchanges and the movement of capital."

The Front National surfes skillfully on today’s criticism of the European Union shared by many : democratic deficit, limits of a federal project, neo-liberal policies, absence of growth policies. But this is only a dressing meant to diminish another context : dissolution of the French identity, nostalgy of an imagined and lost sovereignty; mistrust or hate of the alien, Islam peril . It's hate for a modern, democratic Europe, open to others that is put forward by the Front National.

It goes without saying that other EU member states will not accept any renegotiation of treaties. This means that a France led by the Front National would take the decision alone to withdraw from the EU.

• How?
• Over what timeframe ?
• At the price of what conflicts ?
• At what cost?
• In what legal, regulatory and economic chaos ?

The Front National says nothing about this: No figures, No calendar, No programme, No modus operandi.

*It should be noted that Article 50 is not intended for the renegotiation of anything. The purpose of Article 50 is to provide the possibility unilaterally and completely to withdraw from the European Union. Article 50 states ' that any member state can decide in accordance with its constitutional rules to withdraw from the Union.'