Blog: Advantages of a pro-European cooperation - Hoofdinhoud

Last week was a relief for the whole European Union when the Dutch citizens voted in majority for the liberal pro-European parties, notably the progressive and pro-European D66, rather than for the announced extreme far-right candidate, Geert Wilders. This feeling was also shared by my D66 colleagues in the European Parliament and illustrated as well by the high interest I received from the French media.

The European Union feared a domino effect of populism and euroscepticism after the Brexit, and Trump’s election, but the Dutch elections seemed to have broken this trend. For now, another huge turning point for the Union is the up-coming French presidential election in April. Indeed, the Front National is currently first in the polls there, and if they were to win, it would put at risk the whole European Union, by the fact that France, one of its pillar would threatened to leave it and therefore destabilised the whole Union.

However, the Netherlands have shown us that the breakthrough of the extreme-right is not inevitable anymore and that the European progressive parties are rising.

The movement in France that is the most progressive, pro-European, and similar to D66, is the En Marche! movement, carried by Emmanuel Macron. His movement is indeed supported by the D66 party and by some MEPs from the ALDE group in the Parliament as Macron shares with them many common political views and objectives. He is the most pro-European and progressive candidate in this presidential campaign and embodies a renewal of the French political class.

I do believe that his election, in addition to the Dutch results, will give a new breath of fresh air to the European Union and will contribute to its empowerment.