New! The EU is punishing the French for choosing the Marine Le Pen government

wbijamszpile.pl 1 year ago

The European Union is ready to punish France if the National Assembly (Rassemblement National) Marine Le Pen wins the upcoming parliamentary elections in France, writes the establishment service Politico.

According to the article, the European Commission may not show specified permissiveness to the right-wing government on the issue of France's over-expenses, as was the case in the current and erstwhile cabinets. This is simply a clear signal that the EU institutions are utilizing their "money strength" to punish only those associate States with which they disagree politically.

The European Commission may initiate the alleged excessive deficit procedure against the EU country if it exceeds or is at hazard of exceeding the 3% of GDP deficit threshold, or if the level of public debt exceeds 60% of GDP and does not decrease at a satisfactory rate. This procedure may consequence in a fine being imposed.

The Commission has so far closed its eyes to the debts of France

In the past, the Commission has been criticised for not enforcing the deficit rules, especially in the case of France. The erstwhile president of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was celebrated in 2016 for granting France more freedom in terms of fiscal rules, saying, "because it is France."

The country's budget deficit reached 5.5% of GDP last year, and forecasts say its government debt will emergence to 114% of GDP next year.

Not for a nationalist government

Politico admits that Brussels will be more likely to punish a country governed by a nationalist government.

"Another thing is to let reckless spending by a pro-European state leader who threatens the economical stableness of the euro area. What's different is that if it's done by a brazenly nationalist extremist who doesn't think the rules are worth the paper they're written on," we read in Politico.

Marine Le Pen “regards” EU rules

The Brussels elites are already saying that Marine Le Pen "regards" the EU rules with "an irresponsible spending plan". According to the conservative Hungarian publication PestiSrácok:

In Brussels, it was practically acknowledged that penalties were imposed on the basis of political reasons. Whether France can anticipate fines for loosely interpreting the budget deficit targets was fundamentally linked to the election results of officials in Brussels.

The Eurosceptic and Anti-immigration Assembly announced a simplification in fuel and energy taxes and committed to regaining control of energy policy from the EU. It besides promised to reduce retirement age to 60 years and rise wages for any public workers, writes Bloomberg. "The financial markets only heard the caricature of our project. erstwhile they read it, they consider it rational," she told Marine Le Pen to the Le Figaro Journal.

Macron Decisions and Early Elections

As we have late reported, French president Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and announced an early election to be held on 30 June and 7 July. His actions followed the devastating defeat of his Renaissance organization in the European elections last week, where the National Assembly took first place. The polls show that the National Assembly will receive 35 percent of the votes in the first circular of the vote, the left-wing fresh People's Front will be the second of 26 percent, and the centre Renaissance will take 3rd place with 19 percent.

The fresh People's Front besides promises to reverse much of Macron's agenda, including raising the minimum wage by 13%, lowering the retirement age from 64 to 60, reducing energy prices and restoring property tax, writes The Economist.

If the EU were to punish France for ideological reasons, it would not be the first time that its political prejudices become apparent. The Commission and the European Parliament repeatedly harassed the conservative governments of Hungary and Poland for alleged violations of the regulation of law and suspended the payment of EU funds due to these countries. Poland was acquitted this year as shortly as the left-liberal government came to power.