On CNEWS: “The French are very attached to our country’s EU membership”
Yves Bertoncini, President of the European Movement – France, was Sonia Mabrouk’s guest on Monday 25 February 2019 along with six other speakers in the CNEWS programme: Les Voix de l’Info. This programme was an opportunity to review international and French news a few weeks before the European elections on 26 May 2019.
Emmanuel Macron up, Yellow Vests down
While the Yellow Waistcoat movement has had a fairly strong impact on the reputation of the President of the Republic, Yves Bertoncini insisted on giving priority to the French political system: “we have a political system that is certainly distorting, but totally legitimate, and the consequence is that it can run out very quickly, which is probably what Emmanuel Macron lacked and which partly explains this situation”.
Agriculture fair: the battle of the Europeans
The agricultural fair that opened its doors on 23 February was the scene of many political interventions, often involving Europe. The President of the European Movement – France therefore took the opportunity to review the Common Agricultural Policy, which, against all expectations, was supported in France by President Emmanuel Macron, according to Yves Bertoncini. Faced with his interlocutors who accuse Europe of allowing toxic or poor quality food products to circulate in the European Union, Yves Bertoncini reminds us that “to enter the European market, products must comply with European standards, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements”.
What place for Europe in the hearts of the French people?
The euro celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019 and is currently enjoying a certain popularity among the French, which Yves Bertoncini explains to his interlocutor Jean Messiha, repeating on the question of the common currency: “On a subject like this, the French are federalists without even knowing it“. While the Rassemblement national was pleading for an exit from the euro, Yves Bertoncini highlighted the party’s recent decline on this issue. And rightly so, according to him, since “getting out of the euro is disorder”. But generally speaking, if the European or Eurosceptic parties make people talk about them a lot, Europe always seduces the French for the President of the European Movement – France who specifies that “the French are very attached to the accession of their country to the European Union”.
Are the European elections headed towards a liberal/populist?
While the European election campaign has not yet begun, polls predict structured debates around a Macron/LePen opposition in France. Yves Bertoncini warns against the risk of crystallising the campaign around national interests when “the European election campaign should put Europe at its centre”. Moreover, he reminds us that the En Marche list is not the only one credited by the surveys: “the En Marche list will not have Europe’s monopoly, there are other lists, the Greens, the Republicans, we will have to count all the lists”.
Tax for all, why such a proposal?
Yves Bertoncini would first of all like to reassure the citizens: “At European level, the gun at the head of Brussels is a water gun, because in the last ten years, we have not managed once to respect this 3% rule and we have never been punished”. The President of the European Movement – France recalls that each country has its own tax structure, since there is no European standard, but he also wishes to stress that, since “public expenditure is very high in France, leading to a very high level of compulsory tax rate as well, this raises the question of the effectiveness of public and even social expenditure”. He also said that “the issue of equity is also at stake, and that’s where we have to look at income tax”. According to Yves Bertoncini, “France has the specificity of entering income tax at very high levels and less than half of the French pay income tax while many more countries do so”.