Macron may 'struggle' with left-leaning voters says expert

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And another influential eurosceptic politician has taken aim at eight European leaders for failing to implement change. Patrice Cali and François Asselineau, two leading figures of the eurosceptic Union Populaire Républicaine (UPR) party, tore into the EU27 in a series of posts on social media.

Mr Cali, a member of the UPR National Office, said France should leave the EU in order to “restore democracy”, “save French industry” and “protect public health”.

Mr Asselineau, founding President of the UPR, singled out eight EU leaders for not carrying out promises to reform the bloc, including former Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

Writing on Twitter, Mr Cali bullet-pointed his 10 reasons for France to quit the bloc, they include: “Restore democracy by giving meaning to elections, break the exponential increase in public debt, save French industry and our jobs, save French agriculture and French farmers and control migratory flows.”

The other five reasons were to “protect public health and the environment, stop the looting of heritage, restore strong public services, protect our social gains, our pensions, preserve world peace, defend the French and French-speaking vision of the world”.

In a thread on Twitter, Mr Asselineau accused EU leaders of broken promises.

He wrote: “Tsipras – Greece, Kurz – Austria, Salvini – Italy, Grillo – Italy, Iglesias – Spain, Orban – Hungary, Duda – Poland, Morawiecki – Poland.

“All Eurocritical leaders who have come to power promising to ‘change the EU’ but refusing to get out, all had to obey the system and betray their constituents.”

Mr Cali has previously called on France to quit the eurozone and reintroduce the franc.

France abandoned its own currency in favour of the euro in 2002.

The Frexit campaigner called for its reintroduction in a post on Twitter in February.

The UPR politician cited the growing influence of China on the automotive industry in Europe and claimed the EU single currency is not strong enough to rival the Chinese renminbi and the US dollar.

He said: “The EU which was supposed to be a counterbalance to China (United States…) is a big lie.

“We need Frexit and new franc to regain our sovereignty, our competitiveness, our protectionism, our freedom, our democracy, our agriculture, our outsourced jobs.”

His post was accompanied by an article highlighting how Europe imported 50,000 “made in China” cars in 2020, a number that is expected to rise to 500,000 by 2025.

France will hold its next presidential election in 2022, with Emmanuel Macron set to go head-to-head with National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.

But, Mr Asselineau has claimed “the campaign is already over” as he says both candidates want to stay in the EU, the euro, the Schengen travel area, NATO alliance and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

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He tweeted: “According to Le Monde, the 2022 presidential campaign is already over before it even begins.

“The 2 finalists chosen for you both have in their program that France remains in the EU, the euro, Schengen, NATO and the ECHR.

“So that nothing changes.”

(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega)
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