9 June 2024, 10.10pm. After the first slap in the face of the high scores of the Rassemblement National and Reconquête ! (9 million votes, or 36% of the votes cast) in the European elections, there was a second : the announcement by the President of the French Republic that he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling early elections. The Fédéchoses editorial committee decided to postpone publication of the June issue until after the legislative elections, i.e. after 7 July, in order to be able to adapt the content.
In April, we planned to publish a feature on the solidarity between federalists and opponents of the dictatorships in Portugal, Spain and Greece, a solidarity that also applies to our neighbours in Central Europe. This dossier is all the more topical because, as UEF France wrote in an article on 9 June, which was included in our dossier on the European elections : "The European federalist movement was built in the fight against fascism during the Second World War, in the Resistance. We must draw on the energy of our founders and foundresses, on their struggle, to fight foot to foot against this plague that is making a comeback.”
A new term of office is beginning in the European Parliament, where Orbán and Bardella’s far right forms the 3rd largest group. Although it seems that Von der Leyen has abandoned her idea of an alliance with the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR), the nationalists are gaining a foothold both in the Parliament and in the Council (Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Slovakia), where, with the early legislative elections in France, a blocking minority was almost reached. The federal solution is the only one capable of protecting European integration and all that has been achieved over the last 70 years, and of responding to the need to "take back control". Moreover, in a federal Europe, the arrival in power of the extreme right in a Member State would be less catastrophic for the Union than in the case of the intergovernmental Europe we know.
Finally, to protect France from the "delayed victory" of the far right, we urgently need to renovate the Jacobin Constitution, which, according to a study by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, would withstand the arrival in power of an authoritarian force for 18 months. In forthcoming issues of our review, we shall be giving thought to the French Fifth Republic. Federalism could also be a solution, because sharing sovereignty can limit the disastrous consequences of authoritarian rule.
At all levels, federalists must remain clear and uncompromising : the far right, of which nationalism is an integral part, is a scourge that must be fought, in our ideas, in our actions and in our daily lives. We certainly need to invent new forms of activism. In France, we have 3 years to make sure we don’t lose the battle.