“Stop these misbeliefs about Europe! Discover the Decoders of Europe”

“For the record, France’s net contribution to the EU budget is 5.2 billion euros (2015)”

“No, devaluation is not a miracle solution”

“Without Europe, the sovereignty of France is a fiction”

“Terrible misinformation by Marine Le Pen on the European budget. Breakdown of analysis here”

“Brussels dictates its economic policy to France. Really?”

The EU is wise to fear Le Pen, who leads her National Front party in EU parliament. Polls have consistently shown her securing enough votes to make it to the second round of the French presidential contest (there are two rounds; if a candidate fails to win more than 50% of the vote during the first round, then the two leading candidates compete in the second). Though polls show Le Pen leading the pack in the first round of voting, they show her losing to centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in the second. But with nearly half of voters undecided based on polling, and predictions of a low turnout—which has historically supported the far right across the world—a Le Pen victory can’t be ruled out just yet.

While the EU could, in theory, weather Brexit, officials aren’t confident that the bloc could survive a Le Pen victory. In January, Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, warned that a Le Pen win would be “a disaster” that would “destroy Europe.” Gérard Araud, the French ambassador to the US, echoed Rajoy’s warning (paywall), suggesting Le Pen’s win would result in “the collapse of the EU, because the EU without France doesn’t make any sense,” adding that her victory would be followed by “the collapse of the euro and a financial crisis, which will have consequences throughout the world.”

The EU has held off the threat of a Le Pen presidency for over a decade. Next month, as the French go to the polls, the impact of its latest efforts will be abundantly clear.

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