European ambassadors quiz Le Pen over lunch in Paris about her EU plans
A group of European ambassadors posted in Paris questioned far-right leader Marine Le Pen about her plans for France and the EU over a lunch on Wednesday, four officials with direct knowledge of the meeting told POLITICO.
The lunch was held at the lavish neoclassical Hôtel de Beauharnais, once home to Napoleon's stepson and now the residence of the German ambassador in the capital. Officials said it mainly covered Le Pen's future EU agenda.
Le Pen is comfortably leading the polls in the 2027 election race. She has pledged to fight in Brussels to downsize EU institutions, turn the European Commission into a secretariat that would no longer have any competence on foreign policy, internal security or health, and drastically cut France's contribution to the EU budget.
The ambassadors came from the eight countries that share a border with metropolitan France — Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra. The group already met conservative presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau in September. They are planning to host meetings with the other presidential hopefuls, including far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at their respective embassies in the coming months.
An adviser to Le Pen who accompanied her to the lunch said: 'I don't know if it reassured or worried them. What is sure is that they can now report back to their capitals what the National Rally wants to do.'
Le Pen was mainly questioned about her plans to downsize the EU and on bilateral issues, as well as about US President Donald Trump after his heavy defeat in the midterm elections.
While the National Rally has in the past been supportive of Trump, the party has progressively distanced itself from the US president. The party's Jordan Bardella said on Wednesday that his party was not affected by the result and suggested Trump's popularity was undermined by the war in the Middle East and its economic consequences.
Le Pen has also been campaigning for a harsher approach on migration, which would involve stricter checks at the borders, potentially impacting the countries whose envoys she met on Wednesday. All of them, apart from Andorra and Monaco, are part of the Schengen free-movement area.
A diplomat from a participating country said there is a general interest in what Le Pen's stance would be on the key issues of mutual interest and cooperation on which they are working with France.
The same adviser described a very frank exchange, saying Le Pen told them what she says everywhere and was able to elaborate on a number of topics at greater length than she would on TV, and adding that Le Pen regularly meets ambassadors.
Back in December, Le Pen and her No. 2 Jordan Bardella also met US ambassador Charles Kushner. The far-right leaders are also preparing the ground for a possible election win by meeting top French business executives.
