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President of the French far-right Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a campaign rally for the forthcoming European Union parliamentary elections, in Perpignan, southern France, on May 1, 2024. ED JONES / AFP

Former far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, May 1, urged voters to inflict "the most crushing electoral sanction" possible on President Emmanuel Macron's party in European elections next month. The parliamentary leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) spoke at a party congress in the run-up to the European Parliament contest on June 9.

"We must counter them, we must sanction them, we must dismiss them," she told followers in the southern city of Perpignan. "We must inflict on those in power the most crushing electoral sanction that we can," she said.

The RN's list for the elections is not led by Le Pen but by her youthful protg Jordan Bardella, just 28, who has already succeeded the veteran campaigner as party leader. The far-right party has been leading in the polls, well ahead of Macron's centrist alliance.

Seeking to counter youth with youth, Macron has deployed the until now little-known European parliament member Valrie Hayer, 38, to lead the ruling coalition's list for the vote.

"This sanction will be measured by the gap between the list led by Jordan Bardella" and the Renaissance list, Le Pen added.

Second place in the European polls would be a major embarrassment for Macron, who throughout his almost seven years in office has presented himself as a bulwark against the far right as more radical forces gained ground elsewhere in Europe. A recent Le Monde poll found that Hayer's list is increasingly threatened of being caught by the Socialists, who tail her by just three points.

Le Pen urged followers to vote for Bardella's list to ensure that June 9 was the first stage of a great change in Europe, "but also because there are presidential elections in 2027 in France."

Le Monde with AFP

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Le Pen urges 'crushing' defeat of Macron in speech ahead of European elections - Le Monde

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The EU has officially opened a significant investigation into Meta for its alleged failures to remove election disinformation. While the European Commissions statement doesnt explicitly mention Russia, Meta confirmed to Engadget the EU probe targets the countrys Doppelganger campaign, an online disinformation operation pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda.

Bloombergs sources also said the probe was focused on the Russian disinformation operation, describing it as a series of attempts to replicate the appearance of traditional news sources while churning out content that is favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putins policies.

The investigation comes a day after France said 27 of the EUs 29 member states had been targeted by pro-Russian online propaganda ahead of European parliamentary elections in June. On Monday, Frances Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot urged social platforms to block websites participating in a foreign interference operation.

A Meta spokesperson told Engadget that the company had been at the forefront of exposing Russias Doppelganger campaign, first spotlighting it in 2022. The company said it has since investigated, disrupted and blocked tens of thousands of the networks assets. The Facebook and Instagram owner says it remains on high alerts to monitor the network while claiming Doppelganger has struggled to successfully build organic audiences for the pro-Putin fake news.

The European Commissions President said Metas platforms, Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), the landmark legislation passed in 2022 that empowers the EU to regulate social platforms. The law allows the EC to, if necessary, impose heavy fines on violating companies up to six percent of a companys global annual turnover, potentially changing how social companies operate.

In a statement to Engadget, Meta said, We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.

The EC probe will cover Metas policies and practices relating to deceptive advertising and political content on its services. It also addresses the non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the elections to the European Parliament.

The latter refers to Metas deprecation of its CrowdTangle tool, which researchers and fact-checkers used for years to study how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Dozens of groups signed an open letter last month, saying Metas planned shutdown during the crucial 2024 global elections poses a direct threat to global election integrity.

Meta told Engadget that CrowdTangle only provides a fraction of the publicly available data and would be lacking as a full-fledged election monitoring tool. The company says its building new tools on its platform to provide more comprehensive data to researchers and other outside parties. It says its currently onboarding key third-party fact-checking partners to help identify misinformation.

However, with Europes elections in June and the critical US elections in November, Meta had better get moving on its new API if it wants the tools to work when it matters most.

The EC gave Meta five working days to respond to its concerns before it would consider further escalating the matter. This Commission has created means to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries, EC President von der Leyen wrote. If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act.

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The European Union is investigating Meta's election policies - Engadget

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It's hard to see how the EU could legally do what these people are requesting, Nick Fahy, director of health and wellbeing research at the RAND Europe institute, told POLITICO. It's money, not law, but at the same time it would be the EU directly affecting the allocation of resources to health care, and that's explicitly not allowed under Article 168 of the treaty.

Article 168 of the Treatyon the Functioning of the European Union states that the EU can lend support to member countries, but that its actions shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care.

Giving funds to a country to allow women from other member states to have abortions there is not going to be a neutral act by the European Commission; that's the European Commission directly interfering in something highly politically sensitive, Fahy said.

Purely from a legal point of view and from a sort of political point of view between the EU and the member states, I don't see this happening either legally or politically, he added.

The Commission wrote in its decision that "there seems to be no straightforward targeted interference with the competences of Member States," but that "the concrete set-up of a financial support mechanism could nonetheless result in such interference."

It concluded, therefore, that the initiative could be registered insofar as the proposed financial support mechanism does not have as its aim or effect the undermining of the public order legislation of the Member States or more generally of the healthcare and ethical choices made by Member States in exercise of their competence in health matters.

The campaign drew close to 100,000 signatures within its first week; activists are hoping to collect 1 million over the next seven weeks, thereby forcing the Commission to consider the proposal.

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Activists press for EU-wide abortion right - POLITICO Europe

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

With so many threats on the horizon, we need a union that can navigate the turbulent seas of the future and protect the European dream of peace and prosperity for its people and global neighbours, Alexander Borum writes.

As the European elections approach, a new group of Members of the European Parliament will soon take office,tasked with navigating the turbulent waters of global volatility and the immense challenges Europe is currently grappling with.

In this shifting geopolitical landscape, uncertainty and conflict threaten European values and way of life, underscoring the urgent need to bolster the continent's security and adopt a strong stance in the bloc's foreign and security policy.

EU voters must remember the significance of collective security when they cast their votes in early June, considering the broader implications of their choices for our future.

As voters, we must make informed decisions that will ensure the stability and prosperity of the union.

Like the rest of the world, the EU is currently grappling with a multitude of issues that are directly impacting the lives and future of its citizens.

From a deteriorating climate to a cost-of-living crisis, energy insecurity, migration pressures, and a surge of conflicts both within and outside Europe.

While all these issues are important, it is unrealistic to expect that we can address them all at once. As voters, we must ask ourselves, where should we direct our attention and energy for the most effective long-term impact?

Looking back at our shared history can give us a clue. Here, we must acknowledge the European Union's roots as a peace and economic development project.

The EU has, in this regard, been a successful endeavour. Through increased cooperation and burden sharing, we have witnessed a period of unity and progress never seen before on the continent.

While the EU was never without faults, we must reflect on the challenges faced by our British brothers and sisters in the wake of Brexit. It is clear to see that member states are stronger and better off standing together.

As EU voters, we must stand together as we look towards the future, recognising that while the EU peace project has been successful, not everyone agrees with the unions approach.

War is knocking on our door, and as the Ukrainian people pay the ultimate price for resisting the aggression they face, we must acknowledge that the very same threat is encroaching on our external borders.

This war threatens the organic and consensual growth of the union. As such, EU voters must reflect on their role in European security and the need to embrace collective security responsibilities with a sense of urgency.

After enjoying decades of peace under the EU umbrella, European voters have grown complacent and disinterested in security policy and defence spending.

However, in light of the current reality, if EU voters genuinely desire peace and economic prosperity, they must collectively shoulder the responsibility for security and defence in the EU.

This implies making tough choices in the coming years, as matching up to Russias projected defence spending of 8% of GDP in 2024 will require sacrifices. It's time for the EU, where most member states still fall short of the 2% NATO commitment, to embrace collective security responsibilities.

For decades, Europe has relied on others for its collective security. Still, with the horrors of war returning to European soil and Trumpian cracks emerging in the close-knit alliance with our US cousins, it is evident that the status quo is broken.

It is increasingly clear that EU voters must once again look to the age-old Latin adage _si vis parcem para bellum_ "if you want peace, prepare for war"to better position the European Union in the world.

For a brighter future, the EU must take on a concerted effort to advance European security and defence, deter aggression, and safeguard our shared values and heritage.

For all EU citizens, it is crucial to ensure that security and defence are a clear priority in the European elections in June, ensuring that we collectively push for the continents strategic autonomy and further enable it to protect not only itself, its values, and its interests, but also its neighbours from hostile actors.

While strategic autonomy for Europe is a long-term ambition, we must face the fact that our inability to provide the support required for Ukraine to defend itself against an existential threat could easily define the fate of European security for all of us.

Guiding Europe towards a future of credible deterrence, a more balanced transatlantic partnership in NATO, and the ability to respond to critical threats to the union is crucial.

EU voters must strive for a future where threats to our borders, our near-abroad, or even the vital global supply lines we rely on can be addressed with a combination of cohesive diplomacy and credible deterrence.

With this in mind, voters must cast their ballots with determination, fully understanding the need and urgency for a robust European Union.

Come June, citizens must elect European lawmakers who will not pay lip service to our collective security needs and are not afraid to push uncomfortable yet necessary policies.

With so many threats on the horizon, we need a union that can navigate the turbulent seas of the future and protect the European dream of peace and prosperity for its people and global neighbours.

Without a vote in favour of our security, we cannot hope to continue our lives in peace, further progress and development.

Alexander Borum is Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, focusing on the European Union Common Security and Defence Policy.

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In the upcoming European elections, peace and security matter the most - Euronews

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The Greens' Terry Reintke has pitched her party as the antidote to "right-wing, authoritarian" forces that are trying to water down climate action as she campaigns ahead of June's European elections.

In an interview with Euronews on Thursday, the 36-year-old German - one of two lead candidates fielded by the European Greens for June's ballot - outlined her vision for upholding the embattled European Green Deal, the EUs plan to become the first climate-neutral continent.

In recent months, Reintke's Greens party has led criticism of the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP) - set to top the poll in June and remain the parliaments biggest faction - for what they describe as attempts to water down the Green Deal in response to a wave of demonstrations among farmers.

Farmers' protests led the European Commission of President Ursula von der Leyen to gradually row back on some of its environmental commitments with concessions, including loosening green requirements for accessing subsidies as part of sweeping moves to reduce the administrative burden on farmers.

Reintke's solutions include "reshuffling" the bloc's farming subsidies to allocate funds according to ecological and social indicators rather than the size of farms.

"Big agro-businesses basically get the biggest chunk of the agricultural subsidies. And we would like to turn that around, for example, by having a conditionality when it comes to ecological and social standards," Reinke explained, adding that the Greens also supported a cap on maximum subsidies to ensure a fairer distribution to smaller family farms in Europe.

Reintke also hailed the Green Deal as a "part of the puzzle of making Europe a more secure continent," and as the only way of restoring the continent's competitive industrial edge.

"I always say that the Green Deal and the question of security in Europe are two sides of the same coin," Reintke explained, referring to how Europe had made itself "vulnerable" through its reliance on Russian fossil fuel imports in the years prior to the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"So the Green Deal, having energy coming from wind and solar, having a sustainable, circular economy (...) having energy sources that are not dependent on autocrats, is part of a security strategy that Europe very direly needs, because we see that the world is becoming a more insecure place."

She added that the Green Deal was the only viable European strategy, to ensure the bloc can compete with world powers such as China and the US in developing and deploying clean energies such as green hydrogen and battery technologies.

"Having a massive investment programme from the European level that incentivises member states to go down that road (of clean technologies) (...) is crucial," Reintke said, presenting the Green Deal as the only way for Europe to compete with the heavily subsidised industries of China and the US.

In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) - the Biden administration's attractive green subsidy plan that offers generous tax breaks and rebates for green technology made in America - prompted fears of an industrial exodus out of Europe and saw the EU scramble to introduce counter-proposals such as the Net Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

The bloc has also recently launched probes into Chinese state subsidies into electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines amid fears the EU industry is flooded by cheap imports.

Reintke also said that a vote for the Greens was the best way of "defending democracy" against right-wing "backlashes against democracy, rule of law and freedom in Europe."

"Citizens have the choice whether they want to have a more right-wing majority in the European Parliament, potentially having authoritarian, far-right forces influencing the programme of the European Commission (...) or (...) whether they want to have progressive, forward-looking, future-oriented policies," she added.

While acknowledging the successes of Commissionchief Ursula von der Leyen, currently campaigning for re-election, she also took a jab at her for losing "traction" during her mandate.

"I would lie if I would say that she (von der Leyen) didn't push forward very positive things in these five years, but atthe same time, we could see that especially towards the end of the legislature, she really lost traction," she said, referring to her party's attack against the Green Deal and attempts to bring down the Nature Restoration law, a bill designed torestore at least 20% of the European Union's land and sea areas by 2030.

Von der Leyen is nonetheless pledging to continue to defend the Green Deal as a "clean growth model" in her campaign.

Asked about the EU's response to the conflict gripping in the Middle East, and whether the bloc should consider sanctions on Israel for its response in Gaza to Hamas' October 7 attacks, Reintke said: "I think that we should put pressure on Israel."

She also argued the bloc could use its trade deal, the EU-Israel Association Agreement, to exert pressure on Tel Aviv, a proposal first tabled by Ireland and Spain, considered among the bloc's fiercest critics of Netanyahu's war in Gaza.

"We should, for example, use the Association Agreement that we have to say, look, what is happening right now is not good, also not for the security of Israel and Israeli citizens," Reintke said.

This interview is part of an ongoing series with all the Spitzenkandidaten. The full interview with Terry Reintke will air on Euronews on May 10.

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The Greens' Reintke vows to keep EU on track towards climate neutrality amid right-wing backlash - Euronews

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