Name? Marine Le Pen
Westphalian identity? French
Age? 52
Why is she in the news? Marine Le Pen of the right wing French Rassemblement National party is one of fifteen signatories of a common declaration announcing the formation of a major alliance of far-right representatives in the European Parliament. This is likely the result of added pressure on Le Pen as the candidate most threatening to current French President Macron after both suffered a heavy loss in France’s regional elections.
Why do we care? Le Pen is joining a group of people we are increasingly sceptical of, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Spain’s Vox party and Italy’s League and Brothers of Italy, led by Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni respectively. In general, we consider all groups shifting off to the extremes of the political spectrum sceptical, but this group Le Pen…this group?
Why should you care? Because extreme bodies gaining too much power is never good for the stability of anything. We are talking about the likes of Bolsonaro or Trump. If you do not want similar leaders in the EU you should care 6/10.
Who else cares? Jaroslav Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling party and arguably, Poland’s most influential politician. His party also joined this declaration and is among the biggest fractions. However, while Kaczynski and Le Pen have a similar stance on the EU, they heavily disagree over Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Le Pen enthusiastically supports the Kremlin boss, who is despised by Kaczynski who sees him as Poland’s number one threat.
Any further comments? Although this alliance has the potential to become the third largest fraction in the EU parliament, it does not seem likely that the different national parties will overcome their differences any time soon. They all want to dismantle the EU as it currently is, but for incompatible reasons and motives, so for now … the EU, which Le Pen hates so much, will survive … we guess?
