EMMANUEL Macron has been slammed for pushing for increased EU integration for a ...

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of France’s right-wing Les Républicains opposition party, also hit out at right-wing Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally, for rallying for the EU’s downfall. Kicking off his party’s European Parliament election campaign, he said: “Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen: for or against Europe. It’s the same sterile alternative, the same impasse. “On the one hand, you have Marine Le Pen and the deconstruction of Europe; the other approach, Emmanuel Macron’s, is also an impasse: always more of a Europe that doesn’t work.

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“I think of Europe, its lifestyle, its civilisation. We are all aware of the threats and challenges posed by a more assertive US and China, rising Islamic extremism, climate change and globalisation. And we have to ask ourselves: ‘Will tomorrow’s Europe still play a role on the global stage?’”

He called on European governments to stop “under-estimating the Islamist threat”. 

Mr Wauquiez is seeking to position his conservative party as the best alternative to Mr Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LREM) and Mrs Le Pen’s hard-right Rassemblement national (RN) ahead of the bloc’s parliamentary elections. 

The vote, a four-day series of national elections held May 23-26 across Europe, is already being framed as a battle between anti-immigrant nationalists like Mrs Le Pen and pro-Europe progressives like Mr Macron – with the likes of Mr Wauquiez hovering between the two extremes.  

In a newspaper column published in each of the 28 member states earlier this month Mr Macron laid out his ideas for a European “renaissance” ahead of the vote, unveiling a series of proposals aimed at protecting and defending European citizens while giving the bloc new impetus in the face of global competition.

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