“Transforming Europe means helping to strengthen France” for Valérie Hayer, presidential majority candidate

Valérie Hayer leads the presidential majority list. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore

MEP Renaissance, president of the Renew group in the European Parliament, leads the Need for Europe list of the presidential majority.

You are campaigning on strictly European issues, which paradoxically seems difficult to impose. You confirm ?

Some of my opponents would not want to talk about Europe, and the issues of the election. However, talking about Europe means talking about France, and transforming Europe means helping to strengthen France. This has been our course of action since 2017, with the President of the Republic.

In this campaign, my objective remains that the French realize that they need Europe, for their purchasing power, their employment, their health, their security. And to demonstrate to them that the presidential majority's project is the best for France and Europe. And by allowing us to return as many as possible to the European Parliament, we will be able to continue to move the lines in Europe.

What are your main priorities for your project ?

There is the major investment plan, “the Delors plan”, to invest in strategic sectors for the French and Europeans, energy, transport, health. For health, I have the idea of ​​a Marie-Curie plan.

I am convinced that if we pool our resources on a European scale, within ten years we can have the first vaccine in the world against cancer, we can set up treatments against Alzheimer’s disease, against Charcot’s disease, against Parkinson’s.

This Europe, the Europe of solutions, brings hope.

For what other major subjects does the European level remain the most relevant??

All subjects which correspond to the concerns of the French find a European response. Purchasing power for example. Electricity bills have just increased for the French, but during this mandate we bought gas jointly, we capped gas prices, which made it possible to reduce the bill.

We put in place the tariff shield, we reformed the European energy market, we voted for it three weeks ago. This will be felt on the French's electricity bill. And we are strengthening nuclear power to have affordable, carbon-free energy produced in France. And by going all out, as Europeans, we can accelerate very, quickly.

It’s the same logic for migration issues?

They are of great concern to the French. We can put in place national measures, this was done with the immigration law. But the right scale is European. During the last plenary session in the European Parliament, we voted on the asylum and immigration pact.

This is the only good way to regulate illegal immigration while ensuring that asylum seekers who are entitled to it benefit from our protection. On these issues, my opponents are the defenders of the status quo. I am the only head of the list to have voted for this text.

All the others, for different reasons, but mainly of national policy and posture, are supporters of the status quo. The far right and Jordan Bardella obviously do not wish to regulate and respond to the subject of illegal immigration because it is their electoral fuel. And Raphaël Glucksmann claims that this text is inhumane. However, it is the status quo that is inhumane, with still thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean.

It’agriculture was at the heart of the debates at the start of the campaign…

Yes, and it’s interesting to look at these elections in the light of what may have happened in the United Kingdom. The majority of British people regret Brexit. In terms of agriculture, I mobilized to ensure that we maintain the ten billion euros of CAP aid for our French farmers.

This is a priority, and what is happening in the United Kingdom confirms it: one farm in four will go out of business because they no longer have any ;European aid.

But no one talks about a Frexit anymore?

No, but if we scratch the extreme right's project a little, we have a Frexit in pieces. They want to reestablish borders between France and Spain. How are they going to do it ? They are going to put walls along the border ? Customs officers every 100 m ? They want to renationalize the CAP, get out of European energy market, and no longer contribute to the common pot. If that's not a Frexit… But they no longer assume this in their proposals, because they know that it is not popular with the French.

You still think you can reduce the gap with the RN list well ahead ?

The French will make their decision in the last days. I cannot bring myself to see an extreme right so high in the polls: it carries a project of destruction of Europe which is deadly for France. We need to address the causes of this rise of the extreme right that we see everywhere in Europe.

And the French must not let themselves be fooled by the lies of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen who make their money from anger and fear. Without concrete solution.

You appreciate that the Head of State and the Prime Minister are making such a commitment ?

Of course it counts. And I also have strong running mates with Édouard Philippe, François Bayrou, Stéphane Séjourné, Élisabeth Borne! They are all active in the campaign.

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