French Far-Right's Bardella Vows First Trip to Brussels, Not Germany, if Elected

PARIS — French far-right presidential front-runner Jordan Bardella said his first trip as president would be to Brussels, promising a confrontation with the European Commission over what he describes as excessive German influence in EU institutions. "Our first trip will be to Brussels, where we will defend our country's interests in order to regain the comparative advantages that other European countries are already enjoying," Bardella told hard-right Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, accusing the EU of having "made France its trade adjustment variable in order to satisfy German interests." Bardella is expected to be the far-right National Rally's candidate in next year's presidential election to replace term-limited Emmanuel Macron. Recent polling has shown him with a comfortable lead in the first round of voting and a chance of winning the runoff. The last three French presidents, on the left and right — Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and Macron — chose Germany for their first official trips as heads of state, cementing the post-war French-German friendship born out of the 1963 Élysée Treaty. A Bardella presidency would mark a clear break from that tradition from day one. The 30-year-old nationalist has at times taken a softer approach to the EU than his party's previous candidate, Marine Le Pen, who, until 2017, advocated for France to leave the European Union. Bardella said in December that he does not support a so-called Frexit and would instead seek to impose the French agenda in Brussels. Bardella told Le Journal du Dimanche that his vision for the EU was "a powerful Europe, but a different one … capable of shouldering the major industrial challenges of the 21st century — artificial intelligence, technology and space exploration" while defending the "national sovereignties" of each member state. The National Rally's euroskepticism has also been a point of friction with France's business elites, whom the far-right party is now trying to court ahead of the next election. But according to Bardella, taking on Brussels would also favor French economic interests by reducing EU norms and regulations. "Many economic actors feel that the European Union is, above all, an additional layer of bureaucracy that weakens us," he said.