Brussels, my love? Freak-out over French vote

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Our guests this week are Klaus Welle, former Secretary General of the European Parliament who's now with the Wilfried Martens Centre, Éric Maurice, Policy Analyst from the European Policy Centre, and Maria Tadeo, EU correspondent in Brussels.

In French parliamentary elections, voters didn't make their expected rightward shift, delivering a surprisingly strong performance for the left and for President Macron's centrists. Forming a government now looks complicated. Is France facing chaos, or even crisis?

We discuss how Brussels views the result, and how the economy and financial markets are reacting.

"I think France is up for a meeting with reality", Klaus Welle said.

"If there would be a huge additional pile of debt as a consequence of the programme of the extreme left, we would be in serious trouble", he said, adding that France "is simply to big to fail".

Éric Maurice downplayed the possibility of a government led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-wing party France Unbowed, saying: "He is not the leader of the New Popular Front coalition. The program will have to be watered down, facing reality and coalition partners."

"He won't be Prime Minister. It will not happen", he concluded.

Though the economy is fragile, Maurice added that in France people usually expect a lot of public spending from the state.

"People forgot that there was a lot of money put on the table to help them during the pandemic and energy crisis," he said. "But they only see debt now and that life is more expensive."

Maria Tadeo reminded the panel that, in France, "the state of the economy was already being questioned even before the elections. The pressure on the French government has been on, clearly, for at least a year".

Panelists also reacted to elections in the UK, where the voters gave the Conservatives a thrashing after 14 years in power.

With Keir Starmer's Labour Party aiming to make Brexit work by extending a friendly hand to Brussels, we ask ourselves if London's isolation in Europe will end.

"Brexit is still a story that hugely matters in the UK, but it didn't feature in the elections. For the EU, Brexit happened a long time ago. A deal is a deal. The debate of a new deal with the UK will not happen", Tadeo said.

Finally, the panel discussed the latest figures from the European Travel Commission, which say tourism recently returned to pre-Covid levels. Our guests debate if it is possible to travel in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way.

Watch "Brussels, my love?" in the player above.